
Class S_3:^,o£_ 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The Book of Vetch 



History, Varieties and Uses 

Its Value as a Forage, Fertilizer, Cover 

and Green Manuring Crop 



God Made All Things to Man's Delightful Use 



By 
WILLIAM C. SMITH 

Anthor of "How to Grow One Hundred Bushels of Com 
Per Acre on Worn Soils" 



Illustrated 



Cepyrlghted 1913 
Suee««sfui Farming 






//. 



©CU332847 




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The Birth of Vetch 

Nature one day in cheerful mood. 

Conceived, and bore a plant of wondrous good* 

She gave it slender trailing stems. 

Long noduled roots and pedicel racemes. 

From bluish tints of soft Italian sky. 

She garnered for its bloom, the purple dye. 

With brush of Fairy build and skilled artistic hand. 

She painted its queenly flower — the fairest in the land. 

Into its nature she did impart 
The alchemic soil restoring art. 
Upon her work she gazed bewitched. 
For she had wrought the precious vetch. 



It is a strange economy of Nature, that the plants which 
produce the most food for man and heast, are the ones that 
feed upon and eventually consume the fertility of the soiL 

It is a stranger economy of Nature, that the plants that 
produce the smallest amount of food for man and beast, are 
the ones that feed the soil with the elements it needs to make 
it fertile. 

The vetch plant, while producing no direct food for man, 
yet furnishes succulent fat-producing food for beast, and the 
most precious soil-building materials in the greatest abundance* 



"Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. 

**Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? Doth he open and 
break the clods of his ground? 

"When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast 
abroad the fitches, (vetch) and scatter the cummin, and cast in the 
principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place^ 

"For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him 

"For the fitches (vetch) are not threshed with a threshing instm- 
raent, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the 
fitches (vetch) are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod." 

—Isaiah XXVDI 23 to 27 inu 




A SINGLE HAIRY VETCH PLANT, REPRESENTING ONE MONTH'S 

GROWTH IN THE SPRING 

There Are More Than Thirty Stems to This Plant. No Attempt Was Made to Secure all the 

Roots of This Plant, as Vetch Roots Are so Numerous, Lengthy and Fine, 

It is Almost Impossible to Take Them From the Soil. 



INTRODUCTION. 

In a fall month in the early forties of the nineteenth 
century, a sturdy young farmer with his ox team and old- 
fashioned Pennsylvania covered wagon containing his 
young wife, two children and a few household effects, 
drove into the thick woods of that portion of the Indian 
Reserve afterwards known as Howard County, Indiana, 
staked his claim and began the pioneer task of clearing 
a farm and building a home. Time progressed, the clear- 
ing grew in size, the log house and barn were replaced 
with more pretentious frame buildings, and the family 
circle had grown to ten in number, the youngest being 
the author of these lines. 

In the early part of the first year of the war of the 
rebellion, this pioneer and his family moved from the 
farm he had carved out of the wilderness of the great 
forests of that region, to another farm "nearer town," and 
the old pioneer home became a tenant farm and for forty- 
five long years was handled by the "whip and spur" 
method of farming. Its once fertile acres were so wasted 
of their fertility, that when in the year 1905 the old 
pioneer farmer passed into his last sleep and the farm 
went into the possession of the author and his brother, 
it was a typical worn-out farm, producing corn at the 
rate of fifteen to twenty bushels to the acre. 

To the author it seemed a disheartening task to re- 
tain and undertake the rebuilding of this worn-out farm, 
although it was his birthplace and the tender memories 



of father, mother, brothers and sisters were woven in its 
every fiber. So when his brother offered to buy his in- 
terest he eagerly grasped the opportunity and sold it at 
a cheap figure, arguing to himself that he could take the 
money and buy a better farm nearer to his home. 

Thus the old home farm passed from his possession, 
and he set about to invest the money received from it in 
another farm. 

While the author had been near the soil all his life 
and had farmed a great deal, yet he never had really been 
"up against" the worn-soil problem until he inherited a 
portion of the old worn-out home farm, and even then he 
had not been really initiated, for he had sold his interest 
in the home farm before he had grown a crop of his own 
upon it, so that when he cast about to buy another farm, 
he was not experienced in the worn soil problem. In 
the purchase of a farm he considered location and cheap- 
ness, giving worn soil but very little consideration, so 
without inquiry he purchased in 1906, at a cheap 
price, a farm two miles from his home town, nicely lo- 
cated with reference to markets, good roads, etc. 

As soon as it became known that the author had 
purchased this farm, people who were best acquainted 
with it wondered what possessed the author to buy such 
a farm. It was freely said that it could not be under- 
stood how a man who had been successful in professional 
life, manufacturing, and who was well posted on farm- 
ing, would buy a farm which was so well known to be 
one of the poorest and most unproductive in the county. 

Before the first season's crops were all harvested 
the author realized that there was foundation for such 
talk, and that he was really and truly up against the 



worn-out soil problem, and he was ready to turn over to 
an abler man the job of building up the worn-out soil of 
his newly purchased farm. He was really discouraged 
and sick at heart. But the fighting blood of revolu- 
tionary ancestry flowing in his veins must have asserted 
itself and put fighting vigor into him, for he cast aside 
his discouragement and heart sickness and said to him- 
self, "I will conquer this worn soil and show these people 
what can be done with a worn-out farm." 

But how was he to do it? And in considering how 
he should conquer he learned that necessity is the best 
teacher, that she teaches us lessons of the greatest value. 

Realizing that something must be done to save his 
farm from the doom of the abandoned farm, he was driv- 
en to sit at Necessity's feet and learn her lessons on the 
building up of worn-out soils. He entered into the study 
of the worn-soil problem with an interest intense and ab- 
sorbing. He learned the old lesson that there are two 
classes of plants. The one that feeds the soil, the other 
that feeds upon and consumes the elements of soil fer- 
tility, and that the latter class furnishes the most food for 
man and beast, and hence are the plants chiefly grown by 
the husbandman. 

He also learned the lesson that the chief need of 
worn-out soils was drainage, nitrogen and organic mat- 
ter. 

The problem of drainage was a simple one, but the 
alchemic art of transmuting worn-out soil into "pay dirt" 
and at the same time make it produce paying crops, be- 
came with the author the problem of the hour. 

In solving this problem he reasoned that nitrogen, 
the element soonest farmed out of the soil, is mostly 



found in vegetable or organic matter and in the air abore 
the soil; that when worn soil is abandoned, nature re- 
stores it to health and vigor by growing upon it those 
weeds, grasses, plants and trees that furnish large quan- 
tities of organic matter, and that have the power of draw- 
ing nitrogen from the air ; that it was impossible to ob- 
tain sufficient quantities of barnyard manure to restore 
his soil, and that practical experiments had demonstrated 
that commercial fertilizers alone would not restore soils. 

So the conclusion was reached that the remedy was 
the use of some plant that would grow and mature itself 
between crops, whose root and branch system would 
produce a large quantity of vegetable or organic matter 
and which had the power to grow a large number of root 
nodules, the homes of the nitrogen-gathering bacteria. 

The author by accident found just such a plant. He 
found it in a simple manner — by the reading of a seed 
catalogue which described the virtues of the sand, or 
hairy vetch, and while the description of this plant in this 
catalogue seemed to be so extravagantly exaggerated, 
yet the author, spurred on by the necessity of doing some- 
thing to restore his worn-out farm, was eager to grasp 
at anything that seemed to have in it any element of re- 
lief. He concluded that if this plant had only one-tenth 
of the soil-restoring powers claimed for it, it was the 
soil panacea needed by the owners of worn-out soil, so he 
procured seed of the sand, or hairy vetch, and in the fall 
of 1906 sowed it upon two acres of his poorest land. This 
was the beginning of his experiments with, and investiga- 
tions of, the vetch plant, which has led up to the prepara- 
tion of this volume. 

Within the last few years so much has been written 
in the agricultural papers about vetch that we feel 

8 



that a book on vetch is needed. As to the qualifica- 
tions of the author to write such a book, he has only to 
say, that for six years he has grown on his farm and on 
farms under his control, hundreds of acres of the vetch 
plant. And upon the old home farm mentioned in the 
beginning of this introduction, there has been grown by 
his brother on an average of fifty acres each year for the 
past five years, which have been closely observed by the 
author. 

The author has also written to growers of vetch all 
over the world and obtained their experience with the 
plant, so he feels qualified to write this volume upon so 
valuable and so little known plant to the agricultural 
world, and so submits it to judgment. 

The growing of the vetch plant has been a pleasing 
and profitable experience with the author. It has led 
him into the mysteries and intricacies of the worn-soil 
problem. Its restoration of the worn soils upon his 
"Vetchfalfa Farm" and his old pioneer home farm until 
they produced crops beyond his fondest dreams, have 
been experiences that have given him the pleasure of do- 
ing seemingly impossible things, which is the most pleas- 
ing and lasting pleasure that can come to man. 

It is hoped that the study of this book will prove 
so great an inspiration to the reader that he will join the 
company of those who are seeking the solution of the 
worn-out soil problem — the most vital question now con- 
fronting the American people. 

Delphi, Indiana, WILLIAM C. SMITH. 

January, 1912. 



CHAPTER I 

"Out of names, words, traditions, passages of books 
and the like, we do save and recover somewhat from the 
deluge of time." — Bacon. 

Historical Resume. 

There is a tradition that vetch was born beneath 
the soft Italian sky. History does not prove tradition's 
claim, for the dissemination of vetch has been so wi(ie 
that its native country is unknown. 

Its ancient Latin name "vicia," and the fact that the 
old Roman agriculturist grew it extensively as a "balance 
ration" for the feeding of his soil and domestic animals, 
is some evidence of its Italian origin. However, the 
"Prophet of the Messiah," Isaiah, who prophesied during 
the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, one of the early kings of 
Babylon, wrote of fitch, or vetch. 

An old name for vetch was "cicer," or chick pea 
which belonged to the legume family, and which grew 
in Asia, Africa, and the south of Europe. Its nutritious 
seeds were used in cookery and were roasted and called 
"parched pulse" and used as food for travelers in the 
eastern deserts. This was, no doubt, the parched 
pulse which the young unblemished Daniel and his 
Israelitic companions requested the prince of eunuchs to 
give them to eat when they purposed in their hearts not 
to defile themselves by eating and drinking King Nebuch- 

10 



adnezzar's meat and wine, the eating of which pulse, 
and the drinking of water, made them fairer of counte- 
nance and fairer in flesh than those who ate the king's 
meat and drank the king's wine. 

These facts would therefore indicate that vetch was 
known and cultivated in the region about Babylon from 
its foundation. And as the Babylonish Empire was 
founded one hundred and fifteen years after the Deluge, 
it would tlierefore follow that the vetch plant was really 
known to agriculture when Noah and his kin left the Ark 
and took up again the cultivation of the soil. 

Vetch was a favorite with the Roman farmer, for his 
fields were fertile with it, yet it never gave him any an- 
noyance — it needed no cultivation or manure to make it 
flourish. The Roman farmer had three seasons for the 
sowing of vetch ; one about the setting of the star Arc- 
turus; one in Januiry, and one the last of March. The 
first sowing was for the seed crop, and the last sowing 
for foliage. With the Romans it flourished best in dry 
places, but it grew freely in the shade. 

The lentils, extensively cultivated in Europe as a 
food for stock, both herbage and seed being used for that 
purpose, and so much prized by the Mexicans as food, 
and used by the Germans as a basis of the "Linsen 
soup," is a species of vetch. 

Certain species of the vetch plant, however, are un- 
doubtedly native to America, like the cow vetch, or blue 
vetch (vicia cracca) having stems two to three feet in 
length, and found on the borders of thickets or the edge 
of cultivated fields, and which was undoubtedly the wild 
vetch found on our prairies. 

One of the vetches of agriculture, "vicia sativa," or 
spring vetch, is beyond question a native of southern 

11 



Europe and western Asia, and from there was dissemin- 
ated to all parts of the civilized world. 

The name "vik" from which was derived "vicia" 
dates from a remote period in Europe, for it is mentioned 
in the language of the Pelasgians who were the early in- 
habitants of the Grecian Peninsula, and who existed 
earlier than the fifteenth century B. C, a mighty people, 
carrying on an extensive commerce, and having a large 
navy, and who made war with Ramses II, King of Egypt, 
and conquered lower Egypt. 

The vetch plant was also found among the Slavs 
from whence sprang the Russians, who stand today as 
one of the greatest growers of vetch, and from whom 
we receive most of the vetch seed that is imported to this 
country. 

It is said that the vetch plant is distinct and useful 
enough to herbivorous animals to have received common 
names from the earliest times. 

There was also a species of vetch grown by the 
ancient Greeks, seed of which has been found in the 
excavations of Troy. And centuries ago it was cultivated 
in Spain. 

"Vicia sativa," or spring vetch, was brought to 
America about the time of the Revolutionary War, but 
the American farmer has been indifferent to its great 
value as a fertilizing and soiling plant. So, for all the 
years since its adoption to American soil, it has been 
rarely cultivated except in recent years. This is the com- 
mon vetch, or tare, (not, however, to be confounded with 
the tare of Scripture, for that was a different species of 
plant) which has for ages been cultivated throughout 
Europe for a fodder for cattle, and which was for many 
years regarded as a weed in America. 

12 



The "vicia villosa," hairy, sand, or winter vetch, was 
brought to America from Europe in 1847. This variety is 
most commonly called Russian vetch — not because it is 
a native of Russia, but for the reason that on account of 
its hardiness and value as a soiling, fertilizing and seed 
plant, the Russians grow it extensively, and, as stated, ex- 
port to the United States and other countries large quan- 
tities of its seed. This species of vetch has been exten- 
sively cultivated in France for more than a quarter of a 
century. 

In the year 1910 there were 593,000 acres of vetch 
cultivated in France, which was principally grown in the 
north and west parts of France, common, or spring vetch 
being chiefly cultivated. 

In Germany the hairy vetch is better known and 
more extensively cultivated, but it is called "Winter Sand 
Wicken." It is grown in great quantities upon the 
sandy lands in the vicinity of Berlin and in the north- 
eastern parts of Germany, where it is highly prized as a 
cover and green manuring crop. 

All of the experiment stations of the United States 
have some time or other in the past ten years experi- 
mented with many varieties of the vetch plant, the result 
of which experiments will be given in this volume under 
an appropriate chapter. 

From this historical resume it can readily be seen 
that the vetch plant is of very ancient origin, and that its 
merits as a soiling and fertilizing plant have been recog- 
nized by the inhabitants of the old world from times very 
remote. That the vetch has not been extensively culti- 
vated in America, does not argue against its value, for 
America has had for all the centuries that it has been oc- 



13 



cupied, so much rich verdant soil that the American farm- 
er, when he exhausted his land by cultivation, had only 
to move on and preempt newer lands, rich in grazing for 
his stock, or which grew native feeds and grasses in 
abundance, and which was rich in all the elements neces- 
sary to grow big crops. Now, when the virgin soil 
hias all been preempted, and the American farmer finds 
himself in the possession of worn soils and no new lands 
in sight to subdue, he must turn about and conquer his 
worn soils by the use of the plants with which the in- 
habitants of the old countries beyond the seas conquered 
and restored 

"Wastes too bleak to rear 

The common growth of earth, the 

Foodful ear," 



14 




HAIRY VETCH PLANTS GROWN IN NORTHERN INDIANA 

TAKEN FROM SOIL IN LATTER PART OF APRIL 

The Stems Were More Than Three Feet in Length. 

Note the Large Number of Nodules on the Roots. 



CHAPTER 11. 

"All sorts are here that all the earth yields ! Variety 
without end." — Milton. 

Varieties and Characteristics — Its Kindred. 

Vetch is a member of the botanical pulse family, or 
that class of plants called the legumes, or plants that bear 
their seeds in a pod. 

Its varieties have been numbered and described as 
one hundred and twenty, twenty-three of which are found 
in northeastern and northwestern North America. 

The varieties of vetch are mostly climbing plants, 
possessing long, slender, weak stems, having tendrils at 
or near the extreme end of each pinnate leaf. The plant 
generally being of a clinging or climbing nature, it re- 
quires support of other plants to hold it off the ground 
if it is desired to easily harvest it for hay or to save its 
seed. The branches generally grow from two to five feet 
in length, yet the author has known the hairy, or sand 
vetch, sown on rich ground, to produce branches twelve 
feet long. 

A few of the vetches like Narbonne vetch produce 
erect branches, which will stand up without support and 
which do not have tendrils. 

The flowers of the vetch are borne in clusters on a 
long stem with many one-flowered lateral stalks, and 
generally in shape are like the black locust flower. In 
shade of color they are pink, violet, purple, blue, and 
white, the prevailing color being a bluish purple. 

15 



upon close observation the color of the bIi>om of 
hairy or sand vetch appears to be blue, but when a field 
in full bloom is observed at a distance the color is dis- 
tinctly purple. 

No good purpose can be subserved in describing the 

characteristics of each and all the varieties of vetch, as 

all vetches have similar characteristics, and the purpose 

of this volume is to deal chiefly with the two vetches of 

modern agriculture, to-wit: The hairy, or sand vetch 

{Vicia villosa), and the common, or smooth, vetch.or spring 
tare (Vicia sativa). 

However, a few of the pther varieties of vetch should 
be given a brief mention. 

StoIIey's vetch (Vicia Leavenwortbii) growing wild 
in the central and western part of Texas, having small 
leaves and trailing stems, resists drouth, and makes fine 
early grazing for stock. It is valuable as a cover and 
green manuring crop. 

A vetch (Lathy rus birsutus) similar in characteristics to 
spring vetch, and grown in the South for fall and spring pas- 
ture, is referred to as a winter vetch, which is somewhat 
misleading, as it is not hardy north of Mason and Dixon's 
line. 

In the South it may justly be termed a winter vetch. 
It is chiefly cut and cured for hay. 

Dakota vetch (Lotus Americanus, or Hosackia) found in 
the northwest of the United States, of a bushy nature, is 
pastured and cut for hay. 

The kidney vetch (Antbyllis vulneraria) differing 
from most all varieties of vetch, in that it lives for more 
than two years and has spreading stems about one foot 
high that stand erect ; the plant being covered with short, 

16 



•oft, delicate hairs, and having flowers of yellow to a deep 
red color. This variety of vetch is found in all parts of 
Europe and Asia. It has the good characteristic of grow- 
ing well in the poorest soil, especially those soils found in 
the limestone regions. It was first cultivated in Germany. 
This plant has been frequently tested by the United 
States government agricultural stations, but is reported 
of little value. 

The bird vetch, or wild pea (Vicia Cracca) called also 
blue vetch, cow vetch and French pea, is cultivated in 
Europe, both for soiling and for hay, and is highly prized 
in Germany for sheep pasture. It is suitable for low 
meadows and open woodlands. It is found in the 
meadows of Vermont and has increased so rapidly in 
that state as to cause alarm. Yet some farmers regard 
it as a most valuable plant, and have expressed the wish 
that their meadows were covered with it. But the ma- 
jority of farmers deem it a weed pest. 

It is a distinct variety of the vetch family, having 
every characteristic of the vetch plant even to the long, 
trailing stems, clusters of blue blossoms, pea-like pods 
and nodule-covered roots. It is found in many of the 
woodlands of eastern America, Kentucky,- Iowa, north- 
ward and northwest. The author is of the opinion that 
this is the vetch known as a weed in the great wheat 
growing districts of the Northwest and Canada, which 
survives either heat or cold, and resisting all methods of 
extermination, grows under the same conditions as wheat 
itself and mixes its seed with the threshed wheat. 

In Vermont it is most commonly found in the 
meadows and fence rows. It grows best on a strong 
heavy soil, such as is best suited for timothy, and grows 
vigorously in the Champlain clays. 

17 



When it appears in the meadows it grows so luxu- 
riantly that it smothers out other grasses. It is a decep- 
tive plant in that it grows a less amount of foliage than 
one is led to expect from its appearance. Its hay is rel- 
ished by stock and has as much feeding value as clover. 
Its good points are its value as a haying and soiling crop, 
and its ability to enrich the soil as a nitrogen gatherer. 
Its bad points are its seeming antipathy for other plants, 
as it invariably over-tops and smothers them out and 
is difficult to kill. 

The narrow-leaf vetch (Vicia augustijolia) is said to 
be a perennial by N. L. Willet, who has grown it in the 
South near Augusta, Georgia, and who also says that as a 
vetch it is priceless. The seeds of this variety are black 
and about half the size of the hairy vetch. Its seeds do 
not ripen at once, and as the seed pods that first ripen 
shatter their seeds before the later pods mature, it is a 
difficult matter to save its seed and so, commercially, the 
seed is scarce. One party claimed that he was three years 
in obtaining three bushels of seed for a government ex- 
periment station. This is one of the most valuable 
vetches grown if its seeds could be procured in sufficient 
quantities. 

There was a wild vetch that grew on the prairies of 
Iowa and other western states, which was one of nature's 
nitrogen gathering plants that assisted in storing these 
rich prairie lands with the great stock of nitrogen found 
in them when the American farmer broueht them into 
sulDJection, but w^hich afterward was farmed out of them 
by his mining system of agriculture. 

Common or smooth vetch (Vicia sativa), called also 
English or Oregon winter vetch, or spring tares, came 

18 



from the Old World, has violet-purple flowers borne most- 
ly in pairs, and has swelled, puffy, somewhat flattened, 
gray mottled seeds. It is a stooling plant having from 
four to six stalks. This vetch is an annual and is usually 
sown in the spring. But where winters are mild it may 
be sown in September and harvested the following May. 
It will not stand severe cold. The minimum temper- 
ature it will endure is about ten degrees above zero, al- 
though it has stood a temperature of four degrees below 
zero in the state of Oregon without injury, when grown 
upon lands that were well drained. It, however, frequent- 
ly winter kills even as far south as Georgia. This variety 
of vetch grows to perfection in the beautiful Willamette 
Valley of the Northwest, where thousands of acres of it 
are grown for hay and seed. The hay yields from three 
to six tons to the acre, and seed, giving financial returns 
of sixty dollars to seventy dollars an acre. Vast quanti- 
ties of the seed produced in Oregon are shipped to Cali- 
fornia orchards, where it is grown as a cover crop. 
Thousands of acres of this variety of vetch are also grown 
in Georgia and South Carolina, where it stands in high 
regard as an improver of soil, especially for the improving 
of cotton lands, and for the profit received for its hay. As 
this is one of the two true vetches of agriculture more 
will be said about it in subsequent chapters. 

Hairy, sand, or winter vetch (Vicia villosa) are three 
names for one vetch. It is the hardy vetch of agriculture, 
withstanding the rigors of winter and is grown in some 
of the most northern states, even in the extreme north- 
ern part of Wisconsin, and it is said to stand the winters 
of that region. The stems of this variety being more 
slender than any other variety, it has the trailing or climb- 
ing habit and must have support or it trails upon the 

19 



px)tind. It is a great stooling plant and so sends ont a 
great number of stems at the surface of the ground, as 
many as twelve to a plant, the stems in full growth reach- 
ing a length of from three to twelve feet, the length de- 
pending upon the soil where grown. When seed of the 
hairy vetch is planted and it commences to grow, a slen- 
der, weak-looking stem is first sent up to the height of 
two or three inches. Soon other stems shoot out from 
the main stem near the surface of the ground which trail 
upon the soil. If seed is sown early in the fall and there 
is sufficient moisture to hasten the growth of the plant, 
the stems will make a growth of a foot in length before 
winter, and the plants cover the g^round like a carpet and 
remain green all winter. The fall growth never makes 
any more growth after winter sets in, but a further 
growth of the plant commencing in the spring is from 
new shoots coming out of the main plant stem at the 
ground. The plant does most of its stooling in the spring. 
The fall growth remains green for a time, then withers 
and dies. The new shoots come in the spring very early 
and grow so rapidly that by the middle of May the plants 
are in full bloom. 

A field of hairy, sand, or winter vetch in full bloom is 
one of the most beautiful of agricultural scenes. Its deli- 
cate, bluish-purple flowers are borne in such great profu- 
sion that at a distance a field of them seems like a sea 
of purple, making such a charming landscape picture as 
to be never forgotten. 

The under surface of the plant is covered with a 
dense coat of gray hairs from which it gets its name 
hairy vetch. It gets its name sand vetch from the fact 
that it flourishes upon sandy lands and seems to be espe- 
cially adapted for sandy soils, although it readily grows 

20 



on anj land, and especially upon the poor lands, which 
makes it a valuable plant for worn-out soils. It gets its 
name winter vetch from the fact that it is the only variety 
of Tetch plant that will withstand the rigors of a severe 
winter, or a temperature of zero and under. Its seeds are 
small, round, and bluish black in color, not uniform in 
size, and comparing in size to number two and number 
three bird shot. This variety of vetch affords a larger 
amount of forage than any other variety. Hairy vetch is 
an annual and like spring vetch, if sown in the fall, makes 
its growth between the time it was sown and the follow- 
ing May. It freely matures its seed and will reseed itself 
if harvesting is delayed until some seed pods have ma- 
tured their seeds, which shatter in harvesting. Generally 
hairy vetch matures its seeds and dies in June. 

It is claimed in the northwestern part of the 
United States that if hairy vetch is planted about the mid- 
dle of April it will mature seed the same season. It is also 
claimed that if hairy vetch is mowed while in bloom it 
will, like alfalfa, spring up again and from which said sec- 
ond crop seed can be obtained. And one party in Michi- 
gan claims that if it is cut when it is in bloom, and not 
cut too closely, it can be cut as many as three times. The 
author has never succeeded in obtaining the second crop, 
although he has experimented along this line several 
times. 

It is also claimed that it can be sown in April and 
May and mown in the fall and early the next spring will 
come forth vigorous, making fine pasture or a crop of hay 
or seed. 



21 



CHAPTER III. 



And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, and the 
Herb yielding seed, whose seed is in itself.— Gen. I, U. 

Seed and Seeding. 

The seed of the common or spring vetch has been 
described as being swelled, puffy, somewhat flattened 
and gray mottled in color. The seed of this variety is 
almost universally of the same size. 

The seed of the hairy vetch has been described as 
being ununifom in size and of a bluish black color. Gen- 
eraily they are about half the size of the seed of the 
spring vetch. Both of these varieties of vetch seed fully 
and freely, and both have the characteristic of shedding 
some of their seed before they can be harvested As 
many as one thousand seeds have been known to form 
on a single hairy vetch plant. The seeds are formed in 
small pods similar in shape to a pea pod. If these vetches 
are sown in the fall they will mature their seeds in June 
following, except in the South where they generally ma- 
ture their seeds in May. 

^ ^ In Oregon, when the spring vetch is sown for seed, 
It is sown upon the ground upon which a spring grain 
crop has been grown. The ground is thoroughly disced 
and about seventy-five pounds of seed to the acre'is sown.' 
although one hundred pounds gives better results. In 
the spring, if the growth seems to be rank it is pastured 

22 




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with sheep for awhile. When the seed has sufficiently 
matured the plants are cut with a mower early in tne 
morning, raked up and put in a shock as soon as possible, 
where it is allowed to remain for about ten days and 
then threshed with an ordinary threshing machine. 

This plan could not be worked successfully in a 
country subject to heavy rains, but in Oregon the seed 
matures in the dry season, which is from July 15th to 
August 1st. 

If the plants get wet after they are cut the seed shat- 
ters very badly when drying. In some cases the seed is 
sown with oats and the whole cut with a self-binder. 
The time for mowing is generally when the lower pods 
are ripe, and in threshing it is customary to remove some 
of the concaves of the threshing machine and substitute 
blanks, and run the cylinder more slowly. 

When hairy vetch is sown for seed it is necessary to 
sow with it some plant like rye, barley, or speltz to hold 
it up so it can be harvested. For if the plant is sown by 
itself it trails so closely to the ground that it is almost 
impossible to cut it, especially where forage is very 
heavy. When sown with rye or wheat it is a difficult 
matter to separate the vetch seed from it, althoug^h a 
separator has been invented by J. M. Stone of Lodi, Cali- 
fornia, which senarates vetch seed from wheat. The best 
plant +o sow with it for seed purpo«;es is winter speltz, 
as the vetch seed is easily separated from the speltz 
seed. 

When the seed is sufficiently matured, like soring 
vetch, hairy vetch can be threshed with any threshing 
machine. . When the seed is sown with rye and threshed, 
it may be separated from the rye seed by the construction 



23 



of a heavy belt of canvas about three feet viride and ttti 
feet long, held up at one end at an angle of forty-fire 
degrees with a wooden frame work. The belt should 
then be turned toward the upper end of the frame work 
and the mixed seed thrown on it slowly. The sand vetch 
will roll off the bottom of the belt, while the long rye 
seed will be caught on the nap of the cloth and carried 
off at the top. If this separator is properly constructed 
it will perfectly separate the vetch from the rye seed; 
but, as stated, if the vetch is sown with winter speltz it 
can be easily separated with an ordinary fanning mill. 

In those localities where rains are frequent at the 
time the vetch matures its seed there will be some diffi- 
culty in saving seed, and if vetch is sown by itself it is 
likely to decay before it can be threshed. But the author, 
who lives in a locality where rains are frequent during 
the harvest of vetch for seed, has found no difficulty in 
the saving of its seed. 

Most of the vetch seed, of both spring and hairy 
vetch, used in the United States, is imported from North- 
ern Germany and the Baltic Provinces of Russia, whick 
causes the seed to be high priced. The author is in- 
formed that in Oregon, which seems to be the natural 
home of vetch, the seed of both varieties can be easily 
grown, and where it is profitable to grow it at a price of 
three cents a pound, that an average crop is fifteen hun- 
dred pounds to the acre, although seed crops have bee« 
grown that run from sixty to seventy dollars to the acre^ 
gross. 

For the past season or so the author has had hit 
own vetch seed grown, having sown it with a mixture 
of rye and then sowed both rye and vetch without separac 

?4 



tion. This is a satisfactory plan where you wish to us« 
it for fertilizing purposes only. When sown in this man- 
ner the mixture should consist of about one peck of rye 
and thirty pounds of vetch seed to the acre when sown 
in corn, or about one peck of rye and fifty pounds of 
vetch seed if sown in the open. 

If farmers would use this method of securing their 
own seed then the seed could be procured at such a rea- 
sonable price that there would be no excuse for not grow- 
ing it. And if the farmer wishes to secure the unmixed 
seed it would only be necessary to sow it with winter 
speltz, and separate, in which event he would not only 
secure an unmixed supply of vetch seed, but would also 
obtain some of the speltz straw, both of which are valu- 
able feeds, and are much relished by stock of all kinds. 

Prior to 1905 there was a tariflf on all vetch imported 
into the United States, amounting to about thirty per 
cent of the cost of the seed, or from seventy-five cents to 
a dollar and twenty-five cents a bushel of sixty pounds. 
In the spring of 1895 N. L. Willet of Augusta, Georgia, 
went before the United States Treasury Department and 
convinced the authorities that they were mistaken as to 
the classification of vetch seed, and caused them to rec- 
ognize their mistake and reverse all their former deci- 
sions, and allow vetch seed to come in free of duty, which 
action caused the great saving above mentioned, and for 
which action Mr. Willet should receive much praise. 

One thing has been in the way of procuring vetch 
seed from the northwestern part of the United States 
and that has been the excessive freight rates. For thia 
reason the South cannot profitably purchase and ship 
seed from this region, so they are compelled to buy im- 

25 



ported seed. Some action should be taken by which 
proper freight rates could be obtained from the north- 
west region, for seed of either the spring or hairy vetch 
can be so easily and cheaply grown in that region. And 
the author is assured that it would be extensively grown 
there if they had a market for their seed. 

There is no doubt in the mind of the author but 
what vetch seed can be successfully and profitably grown 
in all portions of the United States, although some claim 
it will not seed east of the Rocky Mountains ; but this is 
beyond question a fallacy, as the author knows after 
seven years' experience with this plant. The author does 
believe, however, that it is necessary that the seed 
become acclimated ; that vetch grown from imported seed 
will not produce the same amount of seed as will vetch 
that has been sown from seed grown in the United 
States. 

It has been found by experiments in the state of 
Connecticut that after home grown seed had been sown 
for several times, there was an increase in the quan- 
tity of seed produced from year to year. So the author 
is thoroughly convinced that after vetch has been ac- 
climated it will produce seed as freely as it will in the 
country especially adapted for the growing of seed. 

The Department of Agriculture at Washington in 
1911 began to collect samples of hairy vetch seed for ex- 
amination for adulteration, and out of 303 samples ex- 
amined found that 187, or 62 per cent, were adulterated or 
misbranded. Five samples did not contain a single seed 
of hairy vetch, and the others were mixed with spring 
and other vetches. Of all the vetch seed purchased in 
bulk for hairy vetch, only 55.9 per cent was hairy vetch 

26 



seed capable of germination. Considering the fact that 
in the regions where hairy vetch is threshed for seed it 
is not grown with spring or other varieties, this disclos- 
ure by the Department of Agriculture reveals a practice 
in vogue among seedsmen that calls for drastic legisla- 
tion, legislation making it a crime with severe punish- 
ment for seedsmen to sell adulterated seed. When one 
has learned the appearance of true hairy and spring 
vetch seed, adulteration of hairy vetch with spring vetch 
seed can easily be detected. But when hairy vetch seed 
is adulterated with vetches other than spring vetch, de- 
tection is not easy. Of course there will be found in 
hairy vetch seed, or in any vetch seed for that matter, 
grains of wheat, oats and even small peas, but these are 
not generally put in for adulteration. Wheat and other 
grain are sown with vetch to make it easy for harvesting, 
as the seeds are all threshed together, and as it is a dif- 
ficult matter to separate the vetch from other grains, 
there would naturally be some of these foreign grains 
that would escape separatioa and so be found in the 
vetch. 

The illustration in this book of hairy vetch seed, 
actual size, consists of seeds taken from a great number 
of samples procured from seed houses all over the United 
States, and it will be noticed that the seeds are all similar, 
but these seeds were of the true hairy vetch. There is 
also much danger in securing old seed. It is claimed that 
vetch seed several years old will not germinate. The 
author has not been able to procure any reliable data 
upon this point. In his experience, however, he has sown 
vetch seed that he himself kept for two years. How old 
it was when he procured it he does not know. Yet this 
seed freely germinated and seemed to be as vigorous as 

27 



any seed he ever sowed. Much hairy vetch seed of low 
Wtality is also sold. 

Vetch seed may be sown either broadcast or with a 
drill. But as it is necessary that the seed should be well 
covered, and put into the ground at least an inch or more 
in depth, the best method of sowing the seed is with a 
wheat drill. If sown in corn, use the ordinary wheat 
drill which farmers use for sowing wheat in corn. If 
sown by itself or in the open, use the ordinary farm drill 
that is used for sowing wheat. The author has found that 
the average make of drill with the feed gauge entirely 
shut oflF will yet sow hairy vetch seed at the rate of fifty 
pounds to the acre. If it is found that the drill will not 
sow the vetch with the feed shut ofif, the gauge can be 
easily opened so that it will sow the right quantity. The 
author has found that when the seed drops from the drill 
to the ground about one or two inches apart that the 
right quantity of seed is being sown. 

Authorities differ as to the quantity of seed to be sown 
to the acre. It is the author's experience that when hairy 
retch is sown by itself, or in the open, fifty pounds 
to the acre is the correct amount to sow. If sown in 
corn about thirty-five to forty pounds is the right amount. 
Yet it is claimed that good stands of vetch have been 
procured with less seed to the acre. 

Unless the ground is moist when seed is sown vetch 
seed germinates very slowly, so if an exceeding dry fall, 
it may be late in coming up, and if some plants are very 
young and weak, they may not withstand the rigors of 
winter. So the sowing of the above quantity of seed gen- 
erally insures a good stand of vetch. 

The fact that vetch will come up in fields where it 
has once been sown for several years afterwards, proves 
one of two things: Either vetch seed remains ia the 

28 



rronnd for a long while before it germinates, or else it is 
also propagated from root stems that remain in the 
ground. It is the general opinion that volunteers come 
from hard seed that is of slow germination, and so re- 
mains in the ground a long time before the outer cover- 
ing of the seed becomes soft enough for moisture to 
reach the germ. 

It is claimed by some authorities that it is necessary 
to inoculate the soil for vetch. The author has grown 
hundreds of acres of vetch on all kinds of soil and never 
paid any attention to inoculation, and so does not hesi- 
tate to say that he believes that it is not necessary. He 
has seen it grow and flourish on the poorest of soils 
without inoculating, and he has the testimony of men 
who have had similar experience who say that inocula- 
tion is not necessary. He has found upon investigation 
that the parties that make such a claim never grew any 
vetch, for if they did and failed, it was not on account of 
the soil in which they sowed it needing inoculation. 

The proper time to sow sand, winter or hairy vetch 
in latitudes north of the Ohio river, is the early part of 
August. For late fall pasture it can be sown in early 
spring. In the South it is sown from September to De- 
cember. 

Spring vetch as indical-ed by its name is in northern 
latitudes sown in the spring after danger of severe freez- 
ing is past. In the southern states it may be sown as 
early as the latter part of December. 

For the past six years hairy vetch seed has been 
quoted from six to twelve cents a pound F. O. B. ship- 
ping station. The prevailing price in the early part of 
1912 was twelve cents a pound. 

Spring vetch seed is quoted at about one-half of tht 
above prices. 

29 



CHAPTER IV. 

Grow cover crops on worn-out soil, 

And you'll secure reward and recompense for toil. 

Vetch as a Cover Crop. 

No worn soil can be restored to a fertile stage, and 
the fertility of any soil cannot be maintained without the 
use or employment of a cover crop. If this may seem 
to the reader a bold statement, and one of apparent dif- 
ficulty to prove, consider Nature's way of soil building 
and how she maintains soil fertility, and you cannot help 
being convinced that the statement is based on indis- 
putable truth. 

When the pioneer preempted this country of ours 
he found it covered with dense tracts of timber and under- 
brush and a thick coating of decayed or decaying weeds, 
leaves, limbs and tree trunks, or the heavy prairie grass 
and thick sod. This covering had been on the soil for 
ages and had given to the soil the precious elements nec- 
essary to make it fertile, so this soil was brought into 
subjection by the husbandman, and was made to produce 
big crops. 

For years the farmer tilled it and it yielded unto him 
its strength, but being deprived of its covering, it was 
subjected to baking sun, raging winds, and washing rains, 
and was so leached of its fertility, that it became worn 
soil — soil that no longer produced paying crops. 

30 



Most of this soil is still being farmed, yielding small 
unprofitable crops to the husbandman who does not seem 
to realize what it needs to restore it to fertility. Some of 
it has been turned back to nature— abandoned. Nature 
seems to abhor nakedness ; so when soil is no longer sub- 
mitted to cultivation she takes it in hand, covers it with 
weeds, then grasses, and then the trees of the forests— 
in fine, she gives the soil a covering which brings to it 
those elements that make up a fertile soil. 

Even while man is cultivating the soil the great 
variety of weeds persist in growing, which only shows 
nature's efforts to keep the soil covered. 

This theory of soil covering is no new doctrine. It 
has been known to agricultural ages, but the majority 
of the American farmers have had for more than a cen- 
tury so much rich virgin soil at their disposal, from which 
great riches have been mined, that they have not realized 
that even rich virgin soil could, in a short space of years, 
be deprived of its fertile elements by the damnable sys- 
tem of husbandry that does not make provision for put- 
ting back each year into the soil those elements of fertil- 
ity that are farmed out of it. 

The great majority of American agriculturists have 
been blind to the fact that soil can be made fertile with- 
out the use of manure or commercial fertilizers, by simply 
covering the soil with "water, stone, plank, logs, chips, 
brush, rails, cornstalks, straw, buildings of every descrip- 
tion and with hay or straw-ricks" or any substance that 
keeps the soil closely covered. He who wrote the old 
proverb, "Snow is the poor man's manure," got his idea 
from the theory of soil covering, for there is no virtue 
in snow itself as a soil fertilizer. It simply covers the 

31 



soil, and like any other soil covering, makes the soil mel- 
low and prevents ammonia wastes, the loss of nitrogen, 
and available plant food from the soil. 

The true theory of soil covering is that the soil 
should be kept covered as much as possible. During the 
cultivating season, if the soil is properly cultivated, that 
is, kept worked up into a fine dust mulch when conditions 
will permit, no serious damage will occur by its being 
uncovered, and besides the roots of the growing crops 
will tend to hold together the fine particles of the soil. 
But when the cultivating season has ended, then the 
damage to uncovered soil begins. And to prevent or 
minimize this damage is the purpose of the cover crop. 
And so we are confronted with the question, "What h 
the ideal cover crop?" 

As stated, the most serious damage is done to un- 
covered soil during the fall, winter and spring seasons. 
These are the seasons that we have our heavy washing 
rains and soil carrying winds, and the seasons that tramp- 
ing stock damage our fields. So the ideal cover crop is the 
one that does its best work during these seasons. A 
good cover crop is the one that does its best work during 
these seasons. A good cover crop must be one that will 
make considerable growth in the fall before winter stops 
the growth of plants ; that will well fill the ground with 
its root system ; that will withstand the severest winter 
and will commence to grow early in the spring and make 
a considerable growth before plowing time, and one that 
is capable of adding other elements of fertility to the 
soil, as well as dissolving mineral matter from the coarser 
particles of the soil. 

Vetch fills all these requirements of the ideal cover 
crop. It can be sown in corn at or after laying-by time» 

32 



or after wheat has been harvested. It will grow and 
cover the soil during the fall, winter and spring, and will 
early in the spring begin to grow, and make sufficient 
growth to turn under in time to plant the corn crop ; be- 
sides filling the soil with a store house of riches contain- 
ing the precious nitrogen and organic matter, thus mak- 
ing quantities of plant and bacteria food that cannot be 
obtained so cheaply in any other manner, nor in so quick 
a time. 

B. T. Galloway, Chief, Bureau of Plant Industry, De- 
partment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, says that 
under many conditions hairy vetch is the best leguminous 
winter cover crop known, and the author has long held 
this opinion also. 



33 



CHAPTER V. 

Give to your orchard the best of care and feed, 
Yet still, in fall and winter, a cover crop it needs. 

Vetch as a Cover Crop for the Orchard. 

It is universally acknowledged by fruit growers that 
for successful orchard growing, a good cover crop is 
needed, and that the ideal orchard cover crop must be one 
possessed of all the good points of the cover crop men- 
tioned in chapter four, as well as being capable of storing 
large quantities of nitrogen into the soil, and must be 
able to withstand the tramping necessary at picking time, 
and also a possible drought. 

The successful orchard must be cultivated from early 
spring up to the time in summer when wood growth 
should stop, so that the new growth may become suf- 
-ficiently hardened to withstand the rigors of winter. 

At the time when wood growth should stop a cover 
crop should be sown in the orchard. It should be one 
that will begin to grow early in the spring, and which 
will make a considerable growth in time to turn under 
at the proper plowing time, and one that will, during 
the growing season, store a large quantity of nitrogen into 
the soil and furnish, through its root and branch 
system, a large quantity of organic matter that will rot 
quickly when turned under by the plow, and then be- 

34 




" I 

ai £ 

80 



come quickly available for plant food for the growing 
trees. 

The clovers have been used for orchard cover crops, 
but they do not meet the full requirements of a good or- 
chard cover crop, and besides, the orchardists fail so often 
to get a stand of them that the losses for seed are too 
great to recommend their use. 

As nine-tenths of the writers upon alfalfa condemn 
the practice of sowing alfalfa in the orchard, claiming 
that the alfalfa takes all the available moisture to make 
its growth so that the trees suffer and perish, and even 
though these writers may be mistaken, as one well known 
authority upon alfalfa claims they are, yet the use of al- 
falfa prohibits the cultivation of the orchard which is 
acknowledged universally to be the need of orchards, be- 
cause it makes plant food available, and stimulates the 
growth, without which no true success in orchard 
growing can be obtained. It therefore can readily be 
seen that alfalfa must be put out of the list of cover crops 
for the orchard. 

If alfalfa and the clovers do not come up to the re- 
quirements of an ideal orchard cover crop, from whence 
shall we procure the ideal plant for this purpose? The 
answer to the question, coming from those who have had 
experience, is winter vetch. This plant is admirably 
adapted for this purpose, for the proper time for it to be 
sown is in the early fall, which is the exact time that culti- 
vation and wood growth of the orchard should stop. It 
makes a fine growth before winter and so covers the 
soil that leaching by rains, winds and baking sun is pre- 
vented. It will endure the tramping necessary while 
picking the fruit, and withstands a probable fall drought. 



It is the first plant in the spring to commence its growth 
and grows so rapidly that by the time the soil is in condi- 
tion to plow, it has developed a large root and branch 
growth that gives sufficient organic matter to turn under 
which rots quickly and becomes available at once for 
plant food. 

And then its capacity for gathering nitrogen from 
the air is so great that it stores into the soil great quanti- 
ties of this precious plant food estimated as high as forty 
dollars an acre. 

It seems that Nature intended that this plant should 
be used for an orchard cover crop, as she has endowed it 
with every quality required of an orchard cover crop. 
Orchard growers are learning of its value and are begin- 
ning to use it upon a large scale in California, Oregon 
and the northwestern states where so many thousands of 
acres of orchards are grown. 

In these states enormous quantities of vetch seed 
are sown in orchards to produce cover crops, and the 
common, smooth, or spring vetch (vicia sativa) is the 
vetch mostly sown, as it withstands the mild winters of 
these states, and in California it is generally sown in 
October. 

In the orchard districts of Michigan, sand, winter, or 
hairy vetch is being extensively employed as a cover 
crop, and would be employed by every orchard grower 
were not the seed so high in price. 

It has been found in the use of vetch as a cover 
crop in Michigan, that the vetch holds the snow and pre- 
vents it from being blown away, and thus prevents deep 
freezing and alternate thawing and freezing, which has 
occasioned serious losses in many orchards located upon 
the lighter and more porous soils in Michigan orchards. 

36 




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The seed should be sown in July or early in August. 
And good results have been obtained by the sowing of 
eighteen, twenty-five and thirty pounds of seed to the 
acre, but the author recommends the sowing of not less 
than fifty pounds to the acre. 

If orchards are grown in states where winters are 
mild and the thermometer does not fall much below freez- 
ing, the common spring vetch may be sown with safety as 
a cover crop. But generally the author recommends the 
sowing of sand, winter or hairy vetch. 

It is interesting to note that the oldest Roman writer 
on vetch advised against the use of vetch as a cover crop 
for the reason that it robs the vines of their sap. 

When Prof. John Craig, Horticulturist of Cornell 
University, was asked what was the best cover crop for 
the orchard, he replied without hesitation, "Winter 
vetch." 



37 



CHAPTER VI. 

Oh ! Emulate the busy tireless bee, 

As she gathers sweets from herb and tree. 

Vetch and Bees. 

Whether the bee fertilizes the vetch blossom the 
author is unable to state with positive assurance, but as 
the vetch bloom is similar in construction to the alfalfa 
bloom, it is evident that, like the alfalfa bloom, it has 
difficulty in fertilizing itself. And the further fact that 
the seed pod does not develop from more than one-half 
of the vetch blooms is some evidence that fertilization is 
very imperfect. 

The vetch blooms being numerous, attractive in 
color, and having considerable fragrance, bees and other 
insects of like character, frequent them in great numbers. 

The author has observed that when the hairy vetch 
is grown in the vicinity of numerous bee stands, it 
produces more and more perfect seeds than fields of vetch 
grown more remote from bees, which is strong evidence 
that bees aid in cross-fertilization of the vetch bloom. 

The blue tufted or cow vetch, the wild vetch found 
east of the Rocky Mountains and distributed from New 
Jersey, Kentucky and Iowa northward and northwest- 
ward, has a bloom almost identical to that of the bloom of 
the hairy vetch. Neltze Blanchan in his work on "Na- 

38 



ture's Garden," speaking of the bees and this species of 
vetch, says: 

"Dry fields blued with the bright blossoms of the 
tufted vetch, and roadsides and thickets where the angu- 
lar vetch sends forth vivid patches of color, resound with 
the music of happy bees. Although the pods of the flower 
fit closely together, they are elastic, and opening with the 
energetic visitor's way and movement give ready access 
to the nectar. On his departure they resume their origi- 
nal position, to protect both nectar and bloom from rain 
and pilferers. Its pods are not perfectly adapted to 
further the flower's cross-fertilization. The common 
bumblebee (Bornbus terreslris) plays a mean trick, all 
too sufficiently, when he bites a hole at the base of the 
blossom, not only gaining easy access to the sweets for 
himself, but opening the way for others less intelligent 
than he, but quite ready to profit by his mischief, and so 
defeat nature's plan. Dr. Ogle observed that the same bee 
always acts in the same manner, one sucking the nectar 
legitimately, another always biting a hole to obtain it 
surreptitiously, the natural inference, of course, being 
that some bees, like small boys, are naturally depraved." 

The author has many times noticed the bumble or 
bumblebee working industriously among the bloom of the 
hairy vetch, but whether he was playing the mean trick 
mentioned by Blanchan, of biting into the base of the 
vetch bloom that he might easily steal its sweets, the 
author does not know, but if he was, he certainly was to 
be commended for the industry and intelligence by which 
he "learned how" to obtain his daily bread with the least 
amount of labor. 

Honey extracted from the vetch bloom is white and 
of fine flavor, and it is said that while the vetch is in 

39 



bloom, in its vicinity the bees will deposit from two to 
three times as much honey as they will at other seasons. 
As the hairy vetch blooms early and continues in 
bloom for a period of more than a month, and as it bears 
its bloom at a season when the buckwheat and other 
blooms of plants valuable for honey making are not in 
existence, this plant is certainly worthy of cultivation by 
the keepers of bees. If bees fertilize the vetch bloom, 
the keeping of bees should be encouraged by the growers 
of vetch seed, and especially the bumblebee should be 
protected, for he it is that makes it possible to grow clover 
seed, and who, no doubt, performs the same mission to 
vetch that he does to clover. It is wonderfully interest- 
ing to study the ways that Nature provides for the per- 
petuation of her children. 



CHAPTER VII. 



"Who learns and learns, but acts not what he knows 

Is one who plows and plows but never sows." — Unknown. 

Vetch as a Green Manuring Plant. 

The American farmer has reached that age in agri- 
cultural history when he must make employment of fer- 
tilizing plants to restore or maintain the fertility of his 
soil. Experience has demonstrated that the average 
farmer ca'nnot secure sufficient barnyard manure for his 
lands, nor can he rely on commercial fertilizers. So he is 
either forced to employ the legume plant for fertilization, 
or see his land pass to the doom of worn-out soils. 

Being confronted with this condition he must make a 
choice as to the proper legume to use — the one best suited 
to his needs. He is in that condition that he must depend 
each year on his soil for daily bread for himself and fam- 
ily, and cannot for a single year miss growing a crop for 
profit or food. So if he can find a legume that can be 
grown between seasons or between crops which he grows 
for profit and which will do its work of soil restoration or 
maintain soil fertility, he has, indeed, secured a legume 
of untold value. 

It must be conceded that the legumes are the best 
fertilizing plants that can be grown for fertilizing pur- 
poses, as they bring to the soil nitrogen, the crying need 

41 



of all our soils. Then the best nitrogen gathering legume 
is the consideration to be weighed in selecting a legume 
with which to restore or maintain soil fertility. 

Our soils today are so deficient in organic matter that 
they no longer make a favorable environment for soil 
bacteria, which must exist in abundance in our soils to 
make them rich and suitable for the growing of profitable 
crops. 

Our soils deprived of a sufficient supply of organic 
matter have become so compact that ventilation has been 
shut oflF and they are dying for want of air. So another 
consideration to be weighed in the selection of a legume is 
one that produces organic matter in abundance so that the 
soil bacteria will find in the soil a home with abundant 
food and material to work into plant food ; and that will 
give the soil ventilation, without which no plant can grow 
and be fruitful. 

Green manuring was practiced by the ancient farmer. 
It has been known to all ages. And now, as the new lands 
are all gone, and the lands in possession of the American 
farmer have or are becoming worn, the agriculturists of 
the country are reviving the practice of green manuring, 
and are using green crops for turning under, as never be- 
fore in the history of our nation, and it has been found 
that there is often greater profit in plowing under a crop 
than from its harvesting. 

In comparing green manures with barnyard manures 
it is said that "it has been found that animals digest and 
thus destroy two-thirds of the dry matter in the food they 
eat, so that a ton of clover plowed under will add as much 
organic matter to the soil as the manure made from three 
tons of clover fed to stock, even if all the manure is re- 



42 



turned to the land without loss from fermentation." But 
in the use of barnyard manure we lose all the liquids of 
plants which is saved when plants are turned under 
green. 

Green manures furnish a large amount of organic 
matter which is the right kind of food for soil bacteria. 
They increase the water-holding capacity of the soil, aid 
soil ventilation, utilize soluble plant food that would 
otherwise escape from the soil, and make use of the min- 
erals that the plant roots bring up from the lower depth 
of the soil where they exist in greater abundance. 

And if legumes are used for green manuring large 
quantities of nitrogen are stored into the soil. The use of 
green manures is but a simple imitation of nature's way of 
soil building and soil restoration. 

Important as minerals like potassium and phosphorus 
are to the soil, yet the author, after years of living close to 
the soil , studying its needs, makes the bold statement with- 
out fear of successful contradiction, that our soils need or- 
ganic matter a thousand times more than they do the min- 
erals enumerated. 

Our soils were rich in organic matter when they were 
reclaimed from nature. Now they are poor and without 
organic matter and consist mostly of rock particles. In 
all this land of ours there is not one foot of our worn or 
worn-out soils but what is totally deficient in organic 
matter. Years of sordid tillage without a supply of or- 
ganic matter being furnished, have farmed our soils to 
their death. And whenever an abundant supply of or- 
ganic matter has been brought to them again, they have 
been restored to a fertile stage, which is proof of the 
author's statement or position. 



43 



Green manuring is the most profitable, cheapest and 
quickest method of restoring or keeping up the fertility 
of our soils. The use of green manures will furnish a 
means by which the rock particles of the soil will be dis^ 
solved and thus release the minerals needed for the grow- 
ing of crops, which exist in these rock particles. 

While the value of barnyard manure must be recog- 
nized, yet not one farmer in ten produces it in any quan- 
tity, and even those who do, do not produce enough to 
fertilize one-fourth of their farms each year. 

It is practicable to grow some kind of green crop 
tor manuring on any soil, and to grow it in abundance. 
And It is cheaper to grow a green manuring crop thaa 
to buy fertilizers, and the green manures give better and 
more lasting results for they are the fertilizers that na- 
ture gave the soils when she constructed them. 

To determine the value of a plant for green manur- 
ing we must look. 
First.— To its capacity to produce through its root and 

branch system an abundance of organic matter. 
Second.— The quantity of mineral matter it will dissolve 

from the coarser particles of the soil. 
Third.— Its ability to assimilate nitrogen from the soil 

and atmosphere. 
Fourth.— Its resistence to drought, heat and cold. 
Fifth.— Its capability of making a quick growth, and of 

growing between crops grown for profit. 
Sixth. — Its capacity for holding moisture when plowed 

under, and for quick decomposition. 
The vetch plant has a large number of long fibrous 
roots. They completely fill the soil to a considerable 
depth, so that the soil turns in plowing like heavy sod. 



44 



The branches of the plant are also numerous and of 
great length, especially in hairy, sand or winter vetch, 
so that the root and branch system of the vetch plant 
produces a large amount of organic matter to turn under. 
There being so many long fibrous roots of the vetch 
plant, they go out in every direction into the soil, com- 
ing in contact with so much of the coarse rock particles 
of the soil. It can be readily seen that these rootsgrowing 
in our soils deficient in organic or vegetable matter and 
containing, as they do, from ninety to ninety-five per cent 
rock, that these roots covering so large an amount of rock 
surface, will dissolve and absorb a vast amount of min- 
eral food needed for plant growth. In fact, will secure 
a sufficient supply of mineral food, as these rock particles 
of the soil are rich in minerals and contain generally a 
sufficient supply of minerals to last for a great number of 
years. 

This mineral matter becomes embodied in the vetch 
plant in its growing, and if turned under and incor- 
porated into the soil, becomes available as plant food for 
the plants that follow vetch. 

Nitrogen is considered the most essential soil ele- 
ment, and without which no plant will grow. It is also 
the most costly element. If procured for the soil by way 
of nitrates of soda or commercial fertilizer the cost is 
burdensome. Therefore, any plant that will furnish 
nitrogen to the soil is of great value to the husbandman. 

All the legumes are nitrogen gatherers, but some 
have greater nitrogen gathering powers than others. 
After a careful study and observation of the best legumes 
for this purpose, the author is convinced that there is 
but one legume that has greater nitrogen gathering 
power than vetch, and that is the sweet clover plant. 

45 



Many years ago there was solved the mystery of 
how and from whence the legumes gathered nitrogen. It 
was an important and interesting discovery, and shows 
how well Nature provides for the wants of man, and how 
willing she is to help him if he but shows the slightest 
disposition to aid her. 

In this discovery it was ascertained that in addition 
to the millions of bacteria in fertile soil which transfer 
organic matter into nitrates and other substances suit- 
able for plant food, there are other bacteria which 
are co-partners with the legumes in the manufacture of 
plant food, and without which the legumes would be of 
little value as nitrogen gatherers. 

Our lands are immersed in an ocean of air, three- 
fourths of which is nitrogen. These bacteria that enter 
into partnership with the legumes in gathering nitrogen, 
make their way into the roots of the legumes and cause 
the formation of root tubercles or nodules which we see 
on the roots of legumes, and in which these bacteria es- 
tablish their homes. These bacteria secure their food 
from the sugar and other compounds found in the juices 
of the leguminous plants. They seem to have the 
power to draw nitrogen from the ocean of nitrogen above 
them, and from this combination of plant juices and 
nitrogen substances from the air, they bring to the plant 
an excess of nitrogen compound which the plant utilizes 
for the building up of its roots, stems and leaves. We 
thus have a profitable partnership in that both partners 
profit and secure the food necessary for their rapid and 
proper growth. Therefore, the legume that bears the 
greatest number of root tubercles or nodules on its roots, 
furnishes the most homes for this bacteria, and there- 



46 



fore must be the favorite legume to use in soil deficient in 
nitrogen. 

In all the years that the author has grown vetch he 
has made extensive examination of the roots of the vetch 
plant, and with but one single exception, has found the 
vetch roots to be covered with the root nodules, which 
no doubt accounts for the great success he has had in 
growmg big crops after vetch on soil deficient in nitro- 
gen. This, taken together with the experience of 
others m the use of this plant, justifies him in making the 
statement that as a nitrogen gatherer the vetch plant is 
the peer of all legumes, unless it be the sweet clover 
plant which is beyond doubt the king of them all. 

_ The sand, winter or hairy vetch has withstood the 
wmters of some of our most northern states. The 
author has found that it has never been too hot, too cold 
or too dry for this plant if it secured some growth in the 
fall, or where it was grown from seed of strong vitality 
True, we have noticed that in some years a small 
per cent of the vetch plants would apparently winter- 
kill, and that m mild winters, but upon close investiga- 
tion we are satisfied that the trouble has been in the vital- 
ity of the plants, for why should a certain per cent kill out 
when the remainder would be strong and vigorous? 

Seed selection in vetch is as important as in that of 
any other plant, and insures complete success. Yet the 
author has never had a failure in growing vetch, either 
from seed of weakened vitality or from winter-killing. 
He has never seen the vetch plant affected by heat or 
drought. Vetch seed, however, will be slow in germinat- 
ing if too dry when planted and if it remains dry for any 
length of time. 



47 



As vetch can be sown after corn is laid by or after 
wheat harvest, and make a large growth for fall and 
winter covering, and a large growth before time to turn 
under for corn and will increase the corn yield two fold, 
it becomes an ideal green manuring plant. 

Vetch has great capacity for holding moisture when 
turned under green. The author has many times turned 
under immense crops of vetch even in the driest of 
weather, as stated in another chapter, and it must have 
held and retained moisture or the crops grown after it 
would have been failures. These heavy crops of vetch 
turned under have decayed within a short time. 

There is no plant that so completely fills the require- 
ments of a good green manuring crop as vetch. This has 
been the author's experience as well as that of many 
others. Considering the experience of Connecticut 
farmers in restoring their worn-out tobacco land, the 
Carmers of the South in the restoring of their worn-out 
cotton lands, and the author's experience in the North in 
restoring worn-out corn lands, all done by the growing 
and plowing under of vetch, the author ventures the 
prophecy that the vetch plant will in the near future 
become the Moses that will lead our worn and worn-out 
soils, wherever situated, through and out of the wilder- 
ness of the criminal mismanagement and sordid, dam- 
nable system of farming that has made them "bleak and 
barren," into the promised land of fertility when they 
will again become rich in the elements that produce big 
crops, which means the building up of an empire on 
American soil greater in splendor and power than any 
ever dreamed or imagined. 

In the cotton fields of the South vetch can be sown 
at the last plowing and the tramping necessary at pick- 

48 



mg time will not injure it, and then at planting time the 
following spring the vetch crop can be plowed under. Or 
the vetch can be sown in early fall and cut for hay the 
following May and followed with a crop of Early King 
cotton. 

In the tobacco districts of the North vetch can be 
eown after the tobacco crop has been harvested and 
turned under the following spring, thus securing the 
nitrogen for the soil without which a good tobacco crop 
cannot be grown. It has been estimated that vetch so 
eown in tobacco lands releases in the ground plant food 
that would cost, if purchased in the form of commercial 
fertilizers from $16 to $40 an acre. 

Mr. Edwin Russell of Manistee, Michigan, in his 
article on cover crops, found in chapter twelve, Michigan 
division, struck the key note of soil restoration, and 
emphasized the position taken by the author in his corn 
book and in this volume, when he said, that to restore 
the soil to fertility, "all that is necessary is to sow and 
plow under, sow and plow under. It is the key to the 
whole situation." 

When the modern American farmers learn well this 
lesson, and proceed to put it into practice, then and not 
till then, will worn and worn-out soil and the abandoned 
farm be eliminated from our agricultural economy, and 
vetch being one of the best green manuring crops for 
plowing under, will become a corner-stone in this new 
adaptation of an old, valuable and neglected system of 
agriculture. 



49 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Sow the seed for forage bread, 
That man, as well as beast, be fed. 

Vetch as a Forage Plant. 

Upon the average farm the production of food for 
domestic animals used for carrying on farm operations 
and food for the farmer's family, is most generally s 
serious problem ; and if food is needed for animals des- 
tined for the market, the problem becomes more serious. 
So good forage plants are always a boon to the average 
farmer. 

A plant valuable for forage must be one which pro- 
duces feed in abundance and at seasons of the year when 
most needed. The farmer is indeed fortunate who pos- 
sesses good grazing lands not suitable for farming pur- 
poses. But most farms consist of lands, all of which are 
tilled, and such farms at the present high price of farm 
lands, are not profitable when devoted to blue-grass 
pasture and the like. They must be made to produce 
crops that pay, and on such farms the selecting of a 
proper forage plant that will pay is no small problem 
for solution. 

The forage plant should be selected that not only 
produces food in abundance, but produces a food of high 
feeding value, and one that will grow in unfavorable 
seasons. If possible, a forage plant should be selected 

SO 



which will grow and mature its crop between that 
of other crops, as the growing of such a plant increases 
the profit of the farm. And a leguminous plant should 
be grown for the great benefit which it gives the land. 

Vetch is a suitable forage plant for all animals of the 
farm, and no animal food grown on the farm is as much 
relished. According to analysis made, the fattening prop- 
erties of vetch exceed that of alfalfa, alsike, cowpea vine, 
crimson clover, Johnson grass, orchard grass, red top, 
soja bean and timothy hay. There are but three well 
known hays that exceed it in fattening power, and they 
only a few points, to-wit: Hungarian grass, red clover 
and serradelia hay, the clover hay exceeding it but two 
points. It is claimed that the feeding value of vetch hay 
is the same as the feeding value of bran and has three 
times the food protein value pound for pound that is 
found in timothy hay. As a milk producer vetch is 
equal to that of any plant. It changes the quality and 
quantity of the milk, giving it a rich yellow cream and 
a good taste, and it is said that if this milk is fed to pigs 
you can actually see the little fellows grow. 

In the South dairymen plant thirty pounds of vetch 
with one bushel of beardless barley and one bushel of 
lye to the acre, and some plant less amounts. If this 
barley, vetch and rye mixture is planted early in the fall, 
the barley can be cut in sixty or eighty days after plant- 
ing, and in early spring the rye and vetch can be cut 
together, and the same be followed with two or three 
similar cuttings later in the season. If this combination 
is sown late in the winter the three crops can be cut at 
the same time. 

In the North if one-half bushel of winter vetch is 
sows with one-half bushel of wheat, the whole can be cut 



51 



in the middle of June for hay and splendid cheap feed be 
obtained. 

In the northern states when winter or hairy vetch 
is planted for forage it should be planted with a small 
quantity of rye, winter speltz or wheat to hold it up so 
it can be cut Speltz is the preferable grain to use, as it 
is itself a valuable food for stock. While it is not neces- 
sary to sow any of the grains mentioned with vetch 
when wanted for pasture alone, yet the author advises 
their use, for a heavy crop of vetch lodges so badly that 
it is liable to rot when sown alone. 

In the North vetch should never be pastured in the 
fall unless sown with considerable rye, and then should 
not be pastured too heavy. Stock can be turned on vetch 
very early in the spring. By the time it has reached the 
height of eight to twelve inches, which is generally about 
the middle of April, and from that time until late in June, 
it will afford an abundance of fine pasture. 

If either spring or winter vetch is planted in the 
spring it will afford an abundance of fall pasture. 

A few pounds of winter vetch seed sown with clover 
or timothy almost doubles the value of these crops for 
feed. The author has known instances where vetch has 
been sown with clover and the two crops harvested for 
hay and stock would eat it clean, which generally they 
will not do where clover alone is given them. 

The following method of using oats, vetch, and 
clover in the northern states is recommended, which is 
like killing three birds with one stone: In early spring, 
after breaking the ground, sow twenty pounds of winter 
vetch seed to the acre with the usual amount of oats sown 
to the acre, and also one bushel of clover seed, for four of 



52 



five acres of ground. The oats are ready for harvesting 
before the vetch has attained any size, and the vetch may 
not be of any size when the clover has gotten a good 
start But, however, it will soon come up through the 
clover and if the season is favorable, there will be a fine 
fall pasture, and if not pastured too closely, the clover 
and vetch will make a rapid growth the following spring 
and a fine hay crop will be secured, and there will be 
enough vetch in the clover to make it easy to handle with 
a hay fork. You will have a crop of hay that will 
be entirely consumed by your stock, as the vetch seems 
to be a seasoning or sauce to the clover hay, making it 
much relished by stock. When vetch is grown with 
timothy stock will first pick out and eat the vetch and 
leave the timothy to the last. 

The author always prepares his alfalfa ground by 
sowing and turning under vetch, and for several years, 
in the first crop of alfalfa cut each season, he has a large 
amount of vetch. This he finds a splendid addition to 
his alfalfa hay, making it easier to handle with the hay 
fork, while the stock seem to relish the mixture better 
than they do the alfalfa hay alone. 

Winter vetch can be sown in corn at or after laying 
by time and the stalks rolled down after corn has been 
gathered. If you will allow no stock to pasture same 
you will have by the middle spring following, excellent 
pasture and can obtain from a month to six weeks or 
more of pasture before time to turn under for corn; 
thus obtaining the benefit of winter soil covering, a fine 
crop of organic matter for turning under, besides consid- 
erable valuable pasture for stock. If it is desired to 
sow the land in alfalfa you can pasture the vetch up to 

S3 



July and then plow the ground and same will be inocts- 
lated for alfalfa to be sown in August, or the same can 
be plowed and planted in the spring to oats and cloYcr. 

Rye is a valuable and cheap forage plant and if cut 
with a mower about the time its heads begin to form it 
will make a vigorous second growth. So, in northern 
sections, if thirty pounds of vetch seed and from one- 
half to three-fourths bushels of rye are planted to the acre 
in the latter part of August, this mixture will afford two 
cuttings. If it is not pastured too heavily in the spring 
and a mower is run over same when the rye is not eaten 
off by stock, before it begins to head, and stock is taken 
from it for a short time, the pasturing of this mixture can 
be prolonged for a considerable period. 

Hogs pastured on vetch and rye and fed twice daily 
with the usual amount of corn and some clover and soy- 
bean hay, have made a gain of fifty-three pounds in thirty 
days. It is the author's experience that hogs do fine on 
pasture obtained from vetch alone, and when once they 
obtain a taste of green vetch will attempt to break 
through almost any fence to get to it. 

It is said that an abundance of pasture can be had 
from vetch the entire summer and fall by sowing same at 
intervals of two or three weeks apart. 

While vetch stands pre-eminent as a fertilizing plant, 
it is not to be despised or rejected as a forage plant 
Enough has been written to show its great value for this 
purpose. The author's own personal experience 
leads him to say that it cannot be too highly recom- 
mended for forage purposes. 



54 




=■ < 



> ^ 



— o 



CHAPTER IX. 

Experience is of no value unless it is made to illu- 
minate the path we are yet to tread. 

The Author's Personal Experience With the Vetch Plant. 

The author's personal experience with vetch has ex- 
tended over a period of six full years. 

In the introductory chapter of this book he told how 
he came to grow the plant and that his first experience 
was with two acres. This two acres was planted with 
bairy vetch upon rolling, sandy ground, occupied by a 
young orchard. 

The ground was broken up in the early part of Au- 
gust, and the vetch seed was sown broadcast and well 
harrowed in. The plants came up quickly and covered 
the ground with a considerable growth before winter, af- 
fording an excellent winter covering that held the snow, 
and thus afforded an excellent orchard cover crop. 

The plants were not aflfected in the least by the 
severe winter that followed and early the following spring 
began to grow. The growth was so rapid that by the 
middle of April the plants were more than a foot in 
height. By the first of May they had reached the height 
of about three feet and began to show buds for bloom- 
ing. By the first of June the plants were from three to 
four feet in length and were in full bloom, affording a 
pretty picture. 

55 



As no crop was planted with this vetch to support it, 
of course the vetch lodged very badly. It was decided 
to cut the crop for hay, and an attempt was made to 
cut it with a mowing machine, but owing to the vine-like 
character of the plant and the fact that they had lodged 
so badly, it was impossible to run the machine through it. 
So it was mowed, not, however, without difficulty, by a 
mowing scythe, and after being sufficiently cured, was 
raked up and taken to the barn and mowed away. It 
made a most excellent feed and was more relished by 
the author's horses and cattle than timothy, Hungarian 
or clover hay, or any other feed. 

It was thought that after this first crop had been 
mowed that the second crop would appear, but such was 
not the case. 

The following season this orchard was broken up 
and planted to potatoes and a fine crop of potatoes was 
procured. 

The following season the orchard was planted to 
alfalfa and since that time it has been in alfalfa, producing 
four large crops each year. 

The author's second experience with vetch was with 
twenty-four acres planted on rolling, sandy land, and 
upon land that for twenty years had never produced to 
exceed thirty bushels of corn to the acre. And in most 
years corn had been an entire failure upon this land. 

The hairy vetch was sown and it was drilled in with 
an ordinary wheat drill during the last days of August, 
the ground having been broken and harrowed. The vetch 
made a rapid and a large growth before winter set in, 
and early the following spring began to grow, and grew 
so rapidly that by the middle of May it was from three 

56 



Co six feet in length, completely covering the soil with a 
heavy mass of vegetation. 

The spring had been so wet that plowing could not 
be done until the latter part of May. And when the 
plows were taken into twenty acres of this vetch the 
vegetation was so heavy that the ordinary walking or 
riding plows would not turn it under without the plows 
so choking up that two-thirds of the time was spent in un- 
choking the plows. It began to look like an impossible 
task to plow under this great mass of vegetation, so the 
author decided to try the double-disc plows. And one 
was brought into the field, and after the discs were made 
as sharp as possible, four horses were hitched to the 
plow and it was started. The plow did the work remark- 
ably well. It only choked up occasionally, and the vetch 
generally was well turned under, only a bunch now and 
then sticking out of the ground. 

As fast as the vetch was plowed under it was well 
rolled and dragged and then harrowed. The soil was 
completely filled with the vetch roots and so turned over 
like heavy sod. The field, after it was prepared for plant- 
ing, presented only a fair condition as a considerable 
number of bunches of vetch stuck out of the ground, and 
some difficulty was experienced in planting the field to 
corn with the corn planter. 

The corn was planted the third and fourth of June, 
which is considered a very late time to plant corn in the 
locality in which this field is situated. The weather 
turned dry after this corn was planted, yet the corn came 
tip promptly and grew to a height of three or four inches 
and then seemed to cease growing, and stood in this con- 
dition for a week or more. And as it had been predicted 

57 



by the neighboring farmers that this heavy mass of grce« 
▼egetation turned under would absorb all the moisture in 
the soil and kill the corn, it began to look as though this 
prediction would be verified, and the prospect for a corn 
crop did not look very inviting to the author. But sud- 
denly the corn began to grow, and never in all the experi- 
ence of the author, has he seen corn grow so rapidly as 
this did. 

As stated, this was rolling, sandy land and there 
were several ridges of considerable height running 
through the field, yet the corn in all parts of the field was 
of identically the same height, color and appearance. 

This field of corn during its growing season became 
the talk of the neighborhood, and its fame extended even 
for miles. The fact that there had never been a good 
crop of corn grown on this field for many years, and this 
crop having such an exceptionally fine appearance, it of 
course attracted much attention, as it lay along the road- 
side. And it attracted the attention of strangers, because 
on the opposite side of the road a neighbor had a field of 
corn upon identically the same kind of land which was of 
such poor quality that the contrast between the two 
fields was so great that no one could help but notice it. 

Dry weather set in when this corn began to silk and 
tassel and there were seven weeks of dry weather, yet 
during all that period this corn showed no evidence of the 
severe drought, and not a single stalk could be found 
that was fired, while the neighbor's corn across the road, 
mentioned above, was fired above the ear and did not 
make twenty bushels to the acre. 

At harvesting time the corn was gathered, hauled to 
58 



the market and made seventy-three bushels an acre by 
weight. 

The remaining four acres of vetch that was not 
plowed up and planted to corn, was pastured by milk 
cows from early spring until the vetch ripened and 
died. Quite a few of the stalks of vetch that escaped 
the grazing of the cattle bloomed and seeded and enough 
seed fell on the ground to reseed the field. So a disc 
was run over the field and a good crop of vetch came up 
for the next season. 

The author's third year's experience with vetch was 
with fifty acres sown upon worn-out river bottom and 
upland soil. The bottom land was typical Wabash bot- 
tom soil that had been farmed for years without the addi- 
tion of any leguminous or other crops to restore or build 
tip the soil. Even the cornstalks had been burned each 
.year. The upland had been subjected to the same treat- 
ment 

All of this land was in corn and the crop was exceed- 
ingly poor, much of it not exceeding four or five feet in 
height and produced not over forty bushels of corn to the 
acre. 

The vetch seed was sown in the early part of August 
in corn with a one-horse wheat drill. Before winter set 
in the vetch on the upland had made a splendid growth. 
Much of that upon the bottom land was weak and small 
when it went into winter and quite a good deal of it win- 
ter killed. 

The following spring there was, however, a fair 
fitand of vetch which commenced to grow very rapidly 
and very early, and within a short time completely cov- 
ered the ground. 

59 



The vetch on both bottom and upland was turned 
tinder along in the early part of May and planted to field 
corn, sugar corn and potatoes, there being potatoes 
planted on both the upland and on the bottom land. 

That portion of the bottom land planted to corn 
which had been producing at the rate of about forty 
bushels to the acre, produced that season an average of 
ninety bushels of corn to the acre. And that portion of the 
bottom land planted to potatoes produced at the rate of 
250 bushels to the acre, and as fine potatoes as ever grew. 

The potatoes planted on the upland, which was ex- 
ceedingly poor soil, produced at the rate of 150 JDUshels 
to the acre. 

Since this third experiment with vetch upon the 
author's "Vetchfalfa Farm," he has planted each year on 
an average of forty to fifty acres of vetch seeded by itself, 
and quite a number of acres of vetch and rye mixed, the 
vetch and rye mixture having been grown upon a farm 
of the brother of the author. 

The largest acreage ever grown by the author was 
seeded in the fall of 1910 upon 165 acres of rented land 
that was in sweet corn. And the vetch was planted in 
the month of August at the rate of about thirty-five 
pounds to the acre and was seeded with a one-horse wheat 
drill. 

This vetch did not make a very large growth before 
winter, and in some portions of the fields it did not look/ 
as if there was sufficient vetch for a stand. All this 165 
acres of vetch was allowed to grow until about the first 
of May before any of it was turned under. At that time 
three double-disc plows were started to work turning it 

60 



under, tOmmencing in that portion of the fields where 
the vetch was the largest. 

This 165 acres was in two fields, one of ninety acres 
and the other seventy-five acres. And it so happened 
that the vetch was the largest in one end of the ninety- 
acre field. So plowing was begun at this end, and the 
vetch was two feet or more in height at the time the 
plowing commenced. The vetch was turned under as 
deeply as possible with a disc plow, and as fast as plowed 
under, was followed with roller, drag and harrow. And 
as fast as the ground was put in condition it was planted 
to sweet corn. This process of plowing, preparing the 
ground and planting the sweet corn was continued until 
the whole 165 acres were finished, and the planting was 
completed about the middle of June. And during most 
of the entire time of plowing and planting there was no 
rain and almost the entire seventy-five acre field was ap- 
parently without moisture. The ground plowed up so 
dry that it did not look as if it were possible for anything 
to grow in it, and the vetch on this field was from three 
to six feet high when turned under. Yet, notwithstand- 
ing the dryness of the soil and the immense amount of 
organic matter turned under, the corn seemed to come 
op promptly and grew as well as though it had sufficient 
moisture. A good rain, however, came in due season and 
upon this 165 acres there was as fine a sweet corn crop 
as the author ever grew. The yield was at least one- 
third larger than he had ever produced upon this land. 

In the fall of 1911 the author sowed about eighty 
ceres in vetch and rye, and about thirteen acres of pure 
wetch which went into winter in good shape. 

It has been the practice with the author to sow all 

61 



his corn land at or after laying-by time in vetch one year, 
jtind the next year with rye, and then plow under the 
entire crops of rye, vetch and cornstalks the following 
spring, and to allow no stock to pasture same at any 
time. This method affords an excellent cover crop and 
gives an abundance of organic matter for plowing under. 

The author has plowed under heavy crops of vetch 
the latter part of May, grown upon worn-out sandy soils, 
plowing to the depth of twelve inches, contrary to the 
advice of farmers who claimed that they had had much 
experience with these kind of lands, and that it was posi- 
tively injurious or fatal to plow them to so great a depth. 
But, however, upon these lands so treated by the author, 
crops of corn have been grown producing seventy-five 
bushels to the acre. 

The illustration of "Rye After Vetch," found on a 
subsequent page, shows a picture of a six-acre field on 
the author's "Vetchfalfa Farm" that was sown to hairy 
vetch one fall, and then in the following spring was 
pastured with several head of milk cows up to about two 
^veeks before time for the vetch to bloom (see illustration 
"Hairy Vetch Pasture"), when cattle were taken off and 
in two weeks the vetch was in full bloom (see the illustra- 
tion, "A Field of Vetch in Full Bloom"). After the vetch 
•had ripened its seed the field was plowed and in August 
planted to rye. Both rye and vetch came up and fur- 
nished an abundance of pasture from September until 
snow fell. The following spring the rye came on early, 
also some vetch, which afforded fine pasture until the rye 
not eaten by the stock began to head. Then all stock 
was taken from the field and a mower was run over the 
field, and in a short time a heavy crop of rye was in head 

62 



which was cut for hay when the rye was in the milk, the 
time of cutting being about the middle of July. The field 
was immediately plowed and sown to Hungarian which 
was harvested for hay in eight weeks from time of 
sowing, and made a large amount of most excellent hay 
After the Hungarian was cut for hay it sent out a short 
growth which afforded considerable late fall pasture The 
field was planted to potatoes in the summer of 191Z 
This experience shows the possibilities of combining 
fetch, rye and Hungarian for pasture and a hay crop 



63 



CHAPTER X. 

How oft apparent evil in the things about. 
Becloud our vision, intensify our doubt. 
Yet the seeming bad in everything revealed. 
May, after all, be but the good concealed. 

The Bad Points of Vetch. 

No plant grown upon the farm is without its bad 
points. Therefore, it would be strange indeed if some- 
thing bad could not be said of vetch. 

In all the author's experience, and from the experi- 
ence of others whom he has interrogated, he has only 
been able to search out the following alleged bad points, 
if such they can be called, which have been urged against 
the growing of vetch, to-wit: 

Cost of seed. 

Its liability to escape cultivation and become a weed. 

The necessity of inoculating the soil to secure its 
growth. 

Its liability to freeze out in winter. 

For the past seven or eight years vetch seed has cost 
from six to twelve cents a pound. Sowing fifty pounds to 
the acre would make a cost of from three to six dollars 
an acre. Several years ago, in writing on vetch, the 
author made the statement that if it should cost ten dol- 
lars an acre to sow vetch, it would yet be a profitable 
fertilizer to use. In the light of experience obtained since 

64 




THE J. M. STONE GLOBE SEPARATOR FOR SEPARATING 

VETCH SEED FROM WHEAT 

The Mixed Seed Are Dumped in Top of Machine and Separation Is Done Automatically 

by Gravity, No Belts, Pulleys or Power Being Required. 



the time of making that statement, the author has found 
no occasion for modifying it. 

How much manure or commercial fertilizer could one 
put on an acre of land for three to six dollars, and what 
result would you obtain for that amount expended? The 
author has expended, and he has seen others expend six 
dollars an acre for commercial fertilizer from which 
practically no results were obtained. 

Prof. T. S. Hunt, of the Cornell Experiment Station, 
from analysis of the vetch plant found that three months' 
growth of hairy vetch produced 6,824 pounds of air-dried 
forage to the acre, which contained 240 pounds of nitro- 
gen, 53 pounds of phosphoric acid and 52 pounds of pot- 
ash, a total of 345 pounds to the acre of the most valuable 
fertilizing elements that can be put into the soil. The com- 
mercial value of the 240 pounds of nitrogen alone at fif- 
teen cents per pound, which is a conservative price for 
nitrogen, is worth thirty-six dollars an acre. It cannot 
be said that this nitrogen was already in the soil and 
that the vetch plant simply utilized nitrogen that was 
already available in the soil, for the vetch being a legume, 
it obtains this nitrogen, as heretofore explained, from the 
air through the working processes of the nitrogen-gather- 
ing bacteria. 

But some scientists reading this statement regarding 
the phosphoric acid and potash found in this vetch by 
,Prof. Hunt, will boldly proclaim that these two mineral 
elements were already in the soil and were extracted from 
it by the vetch plant in its growth, and therefore there 
was no addition to the soil of these two elements. 

The author concedes that the phosphoric acid and 
potash were already in the soil, but were they available 

65 



for the use of plants before the vetch was grown ? Was 
not the vetch the means of releasing these elements and 
rendering them available for the future crops? If these 
elements were in the soil they were in rock particles of 
the soil, and it was necessary for some plant, with its 
prolific root system, to cover these coarser rock particles 
of the soil and absorb and take from them the minerals 
contained in them. This, no doubt, the vetch roots do. 
And so these elements were stored into the vetch plant 
during its growth, and, if the vetch was plowed under 
and incorporated with the soil, these elements would be- 
come available for the food of future plants grown in 
the soil. 

The author has demonstrated, and it has been demon- 
strated by many others, that vetch will make sound 
merchantable crops and increase their yield from forty 
to fifty per cent. Say that it will only increase the yield 
twenty per cent, and that your average crop of corn 
heretofore has been forty bushels an acre, you would 
have an increase of eight bushels, which, at fifty cents a 
bushel, would be four dollars an acre. 

Most of our lands are in such condition that we must 
build them up or abandon them and turn them back to 
Nature for her slow process of restoration. But we can- 
not do this and live. We must apply to our lands that 
which the manufacturer applies to his manufacturing es- 
tablishment to increase its efificiency. He does not hesi- 
tate to expend any amount of money when he can in- 
crease the efficiency of his plant even five- or ten per 
cent. He finds that this expenditure is worth the price 
it costs. If we run our farms upon the same principle we 

66 



will find that whatever increases the efficiency of our 
soils is worth the price it costs. 

In the chapter entitled "The Author's Experience 
With the Vetch Plant," he shows how he increased the 
efficiency of his land by the use of vetch ; but the author 
desires that under the chapter of "Vetch Experiments by 
Experimental Stations and Individuals," the reader con- 
sider the experiments of the Connecticut Experiment 
Station, in which they say that the fertilizing elements 
gathered by vetch releases in the ground plant food that 
would cost from sixteen to forty dollars an acre if pro- 
duced in the form of commercial fertilizer ; and the ex- 
periments of A. D. Shamel of Connecticut, who points out 
the great benefits that have been secured from the use of 
vetch upon the poor worn-out tobacco lands of Connecti- 
cut; how tiiey have added the necessary nitrogen to these 
soils and how it has furnished the ideal cover crop, en- 
abling the tobacco growers to cut down the heavy ex- 
penses of fertilizers, and how it is enabling their lands 
to endure droughts ; and how, by the use of vetch upon 
corn land, in the year 1907, a field of corn planted after 
vetch plowed under, won a world's record for yield to the 
acre ; and that the same thing has been done since that 
time by the plowing under of vetch ; and that he has not 
seen a single instance where great benefits have not been 
secured for the following corn crops where vetch was 
plowed under. 

Go to that part of said chapter showing the experi- 
ments with vetch in the state of Georgia and read how 
the worn-out cotton lands of the South have been re- 
stored by the use of vetch. Read the statements of James 
T. Gardiner of Augusta, Georgia, wherein he says that 

67 



the vetch plant is destined to become the savior of the 
long mismanaged soils of the sunny Southland, so that 
they will become as productive as any on earth, and then 
say that it is not profitable to grow vetch with the present 
price of its seed. 

So the author does not believe that he made a wild 
statement when he said that if vetch should cost ten dol- 
lars an acre it would yet be a profitable fertilizer to use; 
and. in the light of all these experiences with the vetch 
plant, it certainly cannot be urged that the cost of seed 
is a bad point against the use of vetch. 

If we have reached that point in our agricultural his- 
tory where we are confronted with worn-out soils, what 
are we going to do about it? Shall we continue to farm 
them and procure low yields of crops that do not pay the 
cost of production? Or shall we pay the price and restore 
them? We must pay the price or perish. 

The author does not consider the objection of the 
liability of vetch to escape cultivation and become a weed 
as worthy of much consideration, yet something should 
be said about this. If there is but half the truth in the 
experiments and statements of Prof, T. S. Hunt, then 
would not vetch be a valuable weed to have upon our 
farms? 

A fertile soil produces weeds in abundance and the 
husbandman must ever combat the weed proposition. 
He cannot escape it unless his soils are so worn out that 
weeds will no longer grow upon them, and in that condi- 
tion he certainly would wish for weeds in abundance. 

God, when he pronounced sentence upon the first 
man for his sin, said, "Curst is the ground for thy sake. 
Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou 

68 




SCREEN 

Style of Screen Used in the J. M. Stone Patent Globe Separator 

for Separating Vetch Seed From Wheat. 



Shalt eat thy bread in the sweat ot thy tace." bince that 
sentence was pronounced upon man, the soil has ever 
brought forth thorns and thistles and the weeds, and man 
must ever contend with them as long as the soil is capable 
of producing food for man. So if our soils are fertile 
there is no escaping the weed proposition in some form 
or other. Then why not grow valuable weeds that re- 
turn some beneficial elements or some soil-building ma- 
terials to the soil? The author has always contended 
that weeds were a benefit and were placed in our soils 
for some purpose. But supposing that vetch did escape 
cultivation and become a weed, it would grow up in our 
fence corners and highways, and certainly would be more 
beautiful than the weeds found in these places. The 
author has shown that vetch is a benefit to clover, 
timothy and alfalfa, and it could not possibly injure any 
other crops unless it would be wheat, and wheat it will 
injure in this respect. 

It is characteristic of vetch to remain in soils for a 
series of years after it has been once planted. Why this 
is, the author has never yet been able to ascertain. 
Whether the plants that grow the succeeding year after 
vetch is once grown come from seed that do not germin- 
ate the first year they were planted on account of their 
hard covering, and thus remain in the soil for the suc- 
ceeding year, or whether the plants are propogated from 
live roots of vetch that remain in the soil, has not yet 
been ascertained. It is a fact, however, that when vetch 
is once sown upon soil, that the plants will continue to 
come from year to year for several years thereafter. And 
if wheat is sown in these lands after vetch has once been 
grown upon them, there will be enough vetch come up 

69 



with the wheat which will ripen its seed at the same time 
that the wheat ripens its seed, and thus the two become 
mixed in threshing. And until recently there has been 
no separator invented that would separate the seed, so 
that vetch seed would mix with wheat, causing a dock 
of the wheat at the elevator. This has become a serious 
problem in the wheat regions of the Northwest and in 
Canada. In these regions there seems to be a wild vetch 
similar in every respect to the hairy vetch that mixes with 
the wheat. The seed of this vetch is a flat, black disc, the 
side faces of which are slightly curved. The diameter is 
about the same as the length of the grain of wheat and 
the thickness of the two is also nearly the same. So, 
therefore, it has been impossible to separate this vetch 
from wheat by the ordinary method of screening, as any 
screen large enough for the wheat to pass through would 
also permit the passage of the vetch seed. If the two 
seeds are ground up into flour it makes the flour dark, 
heavy and bitter, and in fact, wholly unfit for use. This 
same condition would be true in any region where vetch 
of any variety was mixed with wheat. The author has 
personally known of experiences where vetch had been 
so mixed with wheat that elevators would not purchase 
it, and the wheat was totally unfit for grinding into flour. 
Of course this mixture of vetch and wheat would be ideal 
for sov/ing for fertilizing purposes or for a forage crop. 
So if any farmer wish»,s to grow wheat the author desires 
to warn him that he must be careful with the growing of 
vetch upon his farm so as to prevent this mixture of 
^vheat and vetch, and this mixing of vetch with wheat 
is really the only bad point that vetch possesses. How- 
ever, there has recently been invented a seed separator 

70 



that will perfectly separate vetch and wheat, an illustra- 
tion of which is shown in this book. This machine was 
invented and patented by J. M. Stone of Portland, 
Oregon, now of Lodi, California, and the right to use this 
patent in Canada alone, was sold for $50,000.00. This 
screen or separator is a very simple proposition. It 
simply consists of screens made in the sliape of a square 
frame of pipe over which is wound piano wire. The seeds 
are dropped on these screens inclined, and when they 
strike the wires they bounce back like balls dropped on 
a spring mattress. The vetch seeds being heavier, bounce 
higher and continue to bounce until they bounce off the 
edge of the screens. But the wheat, which is lighter, falls 
between the wires. It is not necessary to operate these 
separators with either pulleys, belts, chains, scrapers or 
fans, as the seed is simply poured into the top of the 
machine and the grains pass rapidly through the screens 
and separation is done automatically. These machines 
are made so as to separate all kinds of grains, and its 
invention and being placed on the market solves the ques- 
tion of separation of vetch from wheat, and therefore re- 
moves the only serious objection or bad point ever urged 
against the growing of vetch. These separators are made 
for both elevator and farm use. Those made for the farm 
separate from thirty to fifty bushels of grain an hour, 
and vary in price from $30 to $60 each. They not 
only separate vetch from wheat but other grains also. 

As to the necessity of inoculation, the author has al- 
ready stated in this volume that in all his experience with 
the growing of vetch he has never had to resort to inocu- 
lation, and a great number of vetch growers have given 
similar testimony. Yet there are some reputable auth- 

71 



orities who claim that they have found it necessary to 
inoculate. 

The author believes that it can be safely stated that 
most any lands will grow vetch without inoculation ; that 
the proper bacteria for inoculation is already in the soil 
and that if vetch fails to grow upon any soil that we must 
look for causes other than want of inoculation. 

As to the last objection, the author has already stated 
that he has found the vetch plant to be one of the most 
hardy grown on the farm ; that he has grown it where it 
has been subjected to a temperature of from seventeen 
to twenty degrees below zero, and has had many acres to 
stand under water and ice for several months without 
injury; that it has withstood the test of winters in states 
in the extreme North. However, there is no question 
but what hairy vetch winter kills, that is, some of the 
plants winter kill. And the author has already stated 
that he believes that the cause of this is that the plants 
were grown from seeds of weak vitality. He is of the 
firm opinion that if vetch is grown from the genuine pure 
liairy vetch seed or seed that has been acclimated, that 
there will be little danger of winter killing. Some authori- 
ties recommend a heavy seeding of vetch so that if some 
of the plants do winter kill, there will yet be a sufficient 
stand. 

It should not be forgotten that hairy vetch can be 
sown in the spring and a good forage crop obtained in 
the fall from same, or it will be large enough to plow 
under in the fall, so if planted in this way the freezing 
feature would be eliminated. 

Of course the freezing objection does not obtain as 
to spring vetch, as it is always sown in the spring. 

72 



B. T. Galloway, Chief of the Bureau of Plant In- 
dustry, Agricultural Department at Washington, says of 
the hairy vetch: "This is a comparatively new crop 
adapted to use over a large part of the United States 
and under many conditions it is the best leguminous 
winter cover crop known. It is unfortunate that the 
more general use of this plant should be restricted not 
only by the high price of the seed, but by the fact that it 
is adulterated and of low vitality." In a preceding chap- 
ter we have shown the extent of this adulteration, and 
does this not explain why so many have had their hairy 
vetch to winter kill? 



73 



CHAPTER XI. 

The death blight fell upon the source of Ireland's 

bread, 
Famine stalked in place of hunger satisfied — Erin's 

hosts were dead. 

Vetch and Potatoes. 

The author has had a large experience in the grow- 
ing of potatoes, and finds them a profitable farm crop 
when a yield of seventy-five or more bushels to the acre 
can be obtained. As it costs the same expenditure of 
money and labor to grow fifty bushels an acre as it does 
to grow two hundred or more bushels an acre, then it 
certainly behooves the grower of potatoes to obtain the 
conditions that will produce the larger crop. 

It is a waste of time and money to attempt to grow 
potatoes on land deficient in organic matter. No amount 
of commercial fertilizers of any kind or character ap- 
plied to land deficient in organic matter will produce a 
profitable crop of potatoes. If commercial fertilizers are 
applied to soil in which there is an abundance of organic 
matter it will be of some aid to the crop. 

Organic matter applied to potato land in the shape 
of manure is not desirable because manure has the 
tendency to produce scab on potatoes. 

74 



The ideal organic matter for potatoes is some green 
manuring crop that fills the soil with its roots, thus giv- 
ing an abundance of organic matter, other than the tops 
of the green manuring plant, that becomes available as 
plant food at once and which has the capacity of loosen- 
ing up the soil. 

Among the green manuring crops best for the potato 
soil are the red and crimson clover, rye and vetch. Vetch 
is one of the best. Its growth in the fall and its covering 
the soil in the winter makes the soil loose and friable, and 
the early spring growth fills the soil with an abundance 
of organic matter and nitrogen, which with the large top 
growth, makes the most favorable environment for the 
potato when the soil is plowed deep, and no potato 
ground should be plowed less than ten inches in depth. 

The author has already told how he has grown fine 
crops of potatoes after vetch. In the spring of 1911 he 
plowed under deep, a heavy crop of vetch and cornstalks, 
rolled and harrowed same until the soil was like a rich 
garden and planted it to late potatoes in the month of 
June. 

The potatoes were planted four inches deep with a 
potato planter. They were harrowed four times between 
planting time and the time they had reached the height 
of one inch, after which they were given two deep culti- 
vations and then cultivated shallow all summer until 
too large to run a cultivator between the rows. The 
summer was the driest experienced for years, yet these 
potatoes made a large yield, and not one of the author's 
neighbors, who planted as ordinarily planted, produced 
enough potatoes for home use. 

While deep plowing, the selection and proper treat- 

75 



ment of seed for diseases, the proper cutting of seed, 
depth of planting, proper cultivation and spraying have 
much to do with the growing of a profitable potato crop, 
yet the putting of the soil in that condition that will make 
it a favorable home or environment for the growing po- 
tato is after all the chief essential. No successful potato 
grower has failed to notice that the best potato land is 
the loose soil full of vegetable or organic matter. As 
vetch brings about the loose vegetable-filled soil it is 
therefore one of the greatest aids to successful potato 
growing. At least the author has found it so. 



7a 



CHAPTER XII. 

VETCH EXPERIMENTS 

BY 

EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS 



Arizona. 



But little vetch has been grown in Arizona. The ex- 
perimental station reports that no vetch tested proved at 
all satisfactory. But the station also reports that many 
of the legumes which grow successfully in other parts 
of the world do not succeed in Arizona. 

Colorado. 

Vetch is grown to some extent in Colorado, but only 
for experimental purposes. The experimental stations 
have grown some for seed purposes, but their methods 
of handling the crop and threshing for seed have not as 
yet been worked out. 

Connecticut. 

On account of the large amount of tobacco grown 
in Connecticut, and from the fact that it has been ascer- 
tained that vetch is one of the best plants for renovating 
and building up soils for tobacco, vetch has been exten- 
sively grown in Connecticut. 

The horticulturalist of the Storrs Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station at Storrs, Connecticut, says that their sta- 

77 



tion has not conducted any very extensive experimetfts 
with vetch, except to ascertain its value as a cover crop 
for orchards; that they have found that the ordinary 
hairy, sand or winter vetch is very suitable for orchard 
cover cropping, especially on the heavier soils; that they 
have found that it is very difficult to harvest the seed on 
account of rain, but that occasionally they harvest in 
good shape, and especially if grown with rye. 

At the experiment station at New Haven they have 
made quite extensive experiments with vetch to ascertain 
its value as a cover and fertilizing crop for tobacco fields, 
and they report that their experiments indicate beyond 
question that the sand, winter or hairy vetch is admirably 
adapted to this purpose; that they sow the vetch im- 
mediately after the tobacco crop has been harvested so as 
to protect the soil from washing, or a loss of fertility in 
other ways ; that it has been their experience that after 
tobacco has been harvested, which is generally in August, 
there is a considerable loss of plant food from the soil 
by leaching and drifting of the surface soil, and the heavy 
fall and spring rains on sloping land which badly wash 
and gully the fields on account of it laying bare nearly 
nine months; that heretofore rye has been used for a 
cover crop, which did not prove wholly desirable, al- 
though it gathers up and holds the soluble plant food in 
the soil where it grew, but that it added nothing to what 
was already in the soil ; that sometimes it winter kills 
badly, and at other times it dries out the soil very much, 
especially where it was allowed to get too high in the 
spring; that it did not decay quickly when turned under, 
particularly if it was turned under after it had made a 
large growth, when it impaired the capillary action of 

78 



the soil, leaving it too dry and loose for the young tobacco 
plants, and yielded up its plant food to them too slowly ; 
that they tried many kinds of clover and other legum- 
inous plants without much success because they winter- 
killed even after a good stand was secured ; but that gen- 
erally it was impossible in that region to obtain good 
stands of them in the fall, and for the further reason 
those crops require two seasons to reach their full devel- 
opment which of course was unsuited to their needs, 
hence, they found the hairy vetch plant exactly suitable 
for their purpose, because it was a nitrogen gathering 
crop ; that its habit of growth of spreading out its plants 
on the surface of the ground and covering it completely 
with its dense foliage, made it an ideal cover crop which 
protected the lands from washing and leaching. The fact 
that the tobacco lands were poor in nitrogen, which was 
the most costly element of plant food, the vetch supply- 
ing this nitrogen, made quite a saving in dollars and 
cents, as they were compelled to pay sixteen cents and 
more per pound for nitrogen obtained in commercial 
fertilizers. 

This station in its experiments also learned that 
hairy vetch requires moisture during the first few weeks 
of growth, but after it became established it was one of 
the best drought-resistant forage plants grown; that it 
withstood the cold, heat and drought, but did not do well 
where water stands in the soil or covers the land; that 
its fine small roots entered the soil in every direction and 
when the plants were turned under they rapidly decayed 
•and gave up their plant food to the succeeding crop. 

This station began a series of experiments in Octo- 
ber, 1904, which was a month later than desirable, and 

79 



several fields in this state on which tobacco had been 
harvested were sown to Russian or hairy vetch. In some 
cases the fields were plowed and the vetch sowed with 
rye, while in others the vetch was sowed alone. In some 
instances the vet<^h was sowed on plowed ground and 
harrowed in with spike tooth harrow, while in others 
it was sowed on the surface of the ground immediately 
after the tobacco plants had been harvested and disced 
in with an ordinary disc. 

In some parts of the fields inoculated seed was sown, 
and in others seed that had not been inoculated. The 
stand on all these plots was made thin on account of not 
having sufficient seed, yet a good stand was obtained 
and the plants grew thrifty in the fall and bore the severe 
winter that followed. The vetch stood the winter bet- 
ter than the rye, which was mostly killed. The tests 
showed that in one field which was covered with ice 
for several weeks, the vetch survived and was not 
injured; that the roots of the plants of the inocu- 
lated seed bore many tubercles or nodules, some being 
as large as corn kernels ; that from the seed that 
was not inoculated, the roots did not have as many 
nodules as the inoculated seed and the plants did not 
seem as vigorous ; that when the plants were plowed 
under in May they were from four to eight inches high 
and, where the seed was sufficient, completely covered 
the ground. They learned from these experiments that 
the seed should be sown as soon as possible after the to- 
bacco is cut, and at the rate of one and one-half bushels 
of seed to the acre when sowed broadcast, and three- 
fourths to one bushel to the acre when sowed in drills; 
that the best time for sowing was between August 1st and 

80 



September 15th. It was also learned that the fertilizing- 
elements gathered by vetch are in best form for use by the 
succeeding crop, and that the crop of vetch plowed under 
by the first of May might, under favorable conditions, re- 
lease in the ground plant food that would cost from six- 
teen to forty dollars an acre if purchased in the form of 
commercial fertilizer; that in addition to this fact the 
vetch had a high nutritive ratio, and is one of the most 
valuable forage crops known; that when it is sown for 
forage it cannot profitably be mowed and cured for hay 
unless sown with some plant that will hold it up; but 
that it made excellent pasture. 

This station also recommended the use of this plant 
upon large areas of land in the Connecticut valley which 
were hardly farming land at present, but upon which 
sweet and Indian corn crops could be profitably grown if 
some crop was used to bring the soil into proper condi- 
tion for the growing of these crops without any great 
expense; that it was their opinion that the growing of 
vetch and plowing it under would bring these lands into 
the proper condition for growing the crops mentioned. 

A. D. Shamel, who has been making experiments 
with vetch since 1903 in Connecticut says that the benefit 
of growing vetch as a cover crop for tobacco lands has 
been definitely determined; that it improves the tilth, 
fertility and general soil conditions, and protects some 
lands from waste ; that the chief factors that stand in the 
way of its further use are high cost of imported seed and 
the imperfect and unsatisfactory methods of seed produc- 
tion in this country ; that there is needed a more reliable 
source of seed at a reasonable price; that he wonders 
whether some of the grain regions of the North or West 

81 



might not prove to be suitable for the growing of vetch 
seed; that he has in the past years received hundreds of 
letters from farmers inquiring about the vetch plant, 
source of seed, etc., which shows the interest that is being 
taken in the plant. He also says that in his experimental 
work with tobacco breeding in the Connecticut valley he 
found that the tobacco crops which were harvested in 
September from lands that were left bare through the 
fall, winter and spring, that rains washed away consider- 
able soil; that during the dry seasons heavy winds car- 
ried the top soil and piled it up into drifts along the road- 
ways or against other obstructions; that from fifty to 
one hundred dollars an acre was annually spent by grow- 
ers for commercial fertilizers and manures, mostly for 
the nitrogen contained in these fertilizers; that it was 
clear to him that if it be possible to grow a cover crop 
on these lands it might be possible to prevent this great 
waste of soil, and that if a legume cover crop could be 
used it would be the means of reducing the great ex- 
pense incurred in fertilizers for these soils; that he in- 
terested with him Dr. B. T. Galloway, Chief of the 
Bureau of Plant Industry, and it was suggested that a 
trial be made of the vetches, which was carried out dur- 
ing the season of 1904. They tried several varieties and 
obtained seed of the hairy vetch from the office of the 
seed and plant department, which had obtained it from 
Russia ; that the seed of all varieties was sown in a large 
plot on tobacco lands after harvest the latter part of 
August and the fore part of September; that good stands 
were secured and all entered the winter in good condi- 
tion. In the spring it was found that the most of the 
plants of the hairy vetch had lived through the winter, 

82 



and with the first days of spring began to grow rapidly ; 
mat when the fields were plowed in May these plants 
were several feet long, and the roots turned up and ex- 
posed by the plow, were found to be literally covered 
with white nodules. Some patches that were well set 
with plants were allowed to grow for seed production in 
an effort to acclimatize this variety of vetch and adapt it 
to use as a practical cover crop for tobacco lands. As 
these plants were not sown with any grain to hold them 
up they laid on the ground, and the season being wet, 
most of the flowers and seed pods rotted and only about 
enough seed was obtained to sow an acre the following 
year. This teed was sown with a thin seeding of rye, 
and the second season the rye and vetch plants were cut 
with a mower about July 4th, when a majority of the 
pods were ripe, and piled in small cocks until thoroughly 
dried. As no threshing machine could be secured at that 
season the seed was threshed with a flail and about ten 
bushels of vetch seed and fifteen bushels of rye were ob- 
tained from this acre. As they could not separate the 
vetch seed from the rye with the ordinary screen and 
fanning mill, a home-made separator was constructed, 
consisting of a heavy belt of muslin about three feet wide 
and ten feet long, held up at one end at an angle of about 
forty-five degrees with a wooden framework. The belt 
was turned toward the open end of the framework and 
the mixed seed thrown on it slowly. The sound vetch 
rolled off the bottom of the belt, while the long rye seed 
caught on the nap of the cloth and was carried off at the 
top. 

He states that the tobacco growers who have used 
this acclimated hairy vetch seed have found that it so 

83 



improved the soil that it enables them to cut down the 
heavy expense of fertilizers, and that crops grown on 
the vetch lands are more thrifty and endure droughts 
and wet spells of winter better than crops grown in the 
adjacent fields where no vetch cover crops had been 
grown; that the vetch has been found to be superior to 
rye, barley or other cover crops tried for the same pur- 
pose, and that many growers have had great success even 
with the imported seed. 

Mr. Shamel also says that during the course of these 
experiments he conceived the idea of sowing vetch in 
cornfields at the time of the last cultivation, and so on 
the farm of H. Brewer, Hartford County, Connecticut, 
who was experimenting with him in the breeding of a 
new variety of corn for New England, in 1907 a field 
of ten acres of this dent corn was used for this experi- 
ment, and about July 15, 1907, the acclimated vetch seed 
was sowed broadcast by a man in this field. The sower 
covered three rows at once, and the horses were hitched 
to a light harrow that could pass through two rows of 
corn, and the seed was lightly harrowed in; that a good 
stand was secured, and by the time the ground was 
frozen, completely covered it with a perfect mass. In 
the following spring the vetch began to grow as soon as 
the soil warmed up, and by the time the field was ready 
to plow for corn, a heavy growth of vetch was developed 
and was easily turned under; that the corn crop on this 
field won a world's record for yield to the acre. And he has 
done the same thing again since that time with the grain 
after successive crops of vetch ; that during the dry 
weather the corn plants on this vetch field did not suflFer, 
while adjoining fields were seriously injured by the 

84 



drought. This field was visited by hundreds of people, 
as well as other fields where vetch has been used as a 
cover crop and they have been amazed by the beneficial 
use of vetch. He says that in many other cases since 
that time that he has observed the use of vetch for cover 
crop purposes in corn fields, and that he has not seen a 
single instance where it has not been of great benefit to 
following corn crops, and he has outlined these benefits 
as follows : 

1. The cover crop protects the soil that is liable to 
waste from washing or other causes. 

2. The extensive fine root development tends to 
break up the surface of the subsoil, thus improving the 
tilth of the soil. The rains and melting snows follow 
down these roots, and in this way definitely increase the 
water holding capacity of the soil. 

3. The vetch plants, through the root nodules, in- 
crease the nitrogen contents of the soil. In experiments 
covering three years our bureau estimates that on tobacco 
lands this nitrogen gain is equal in value to about twenty- 
five dollars an acre, or, in other words, takes the place in 
value of that much nitrogen fertilizer which would have 
to be applied but for the use of the vetch cover crop. 

4. The mass of vetch plowed under in the spring 
rots quickly, and adds to the humus contents of the soil, 
thus enabling the crops better to resist drought and make 
a more vigorous, healthy growth. Tobacco crops grown 
on vetch land are healthier, less liable to "mottled" or 
"mosaic" leaf, and to certain fungus diseases than crops 
grown in neighboring fields where no vetch crop has been 
grown. 

85 



In the light of his experience he urges wide-spread 
trials of this legume cover crop, vetch. He also states 
that in South Carolina he has seen trials of hairy vetch 
as cover crops in both corn and cotton fields with prof- 
itable results, and he recommends that a bushel of the 
hairy vetch seed be sown to the acre in corn fields ; that 
in his opinion it is not safe to sow a less amount. He has 
seen good results by adding ten to twenty pounds of rye 
seed to the acre, especially on light soils where it is de- 
sirable to add to the amount of forage to be plowed 
under; that the seed should be sown as soon after the 
last cultivation of corn as possible. 

In plowing under he recommends the use of a heavy 
chain to help push the plants in the furrows and aid in 
their covering by the plow; that he has experienced no 
difficulty in turning under the crop, and as the vetch rot3 
so quickly it does not interfere in any way with the plants 
or cultivation or any other process; that he has also ob- 
served that all kinds of farm animals and poultry thrive 
on vetch when they become accustomed to it; that it is 
one of the most valuable foods grown. 

He cautions the purchasers of vetch seed to use 
care in securing the proper variety, which is hairy or 
winter vetch, as in some cases he has found that seed 
houses have sold to purchasers seeds of other varieties 
for the hairy vetch. 

He also states that he has been conducting some ex- 
periments in California among the citrus growers, who 
having grown it recognize the great value of vetch as a 
cover crop and who are now sowing thousands of acres 
of orchards annually to summer or spring vetch, which 
is adapted to warm climates and where the value of this 

86 



crop as a fertilizing plant and cover crop stands in high 
regard. 

He says that the large seed of vetch makes it a much 
more certain grower than the small seeded legumes like 
clover, etc., which have been used for fertilizing and 
cover crops. 

California. 

G. W. Shaw, of the Agricultural Experiment St.- 
tion of the University of California, says they have done 
considerable experimental work with vetch with much 
success. The vetches are especially adapted to southern 
California, to the coast sections and next to bottom lands 
in the interior valleys. In this state they are not at all 
adapted to the uplands. They are not grown to any ex- 
tent at the present time except as fertilizers to be plowed 
under in cit us orchards in southern California. 

Vetches in this s.ate should be planted preferably in 
October, and not later than the middle of November to 
secure the best results. The vicia sativa is the one which 
has given the best results. 

Georgia. 

Milton P. Jarnagin, of the State College of Agricul- 
ture, Athens, Georgia, says that their station has grown 
vetch in areas of from forty to one hundred acres for the 
past four years ; that at the time he came to the Georgia 
State College of Agriculture the farming land had been 
rented out to negro croppers for a part of the crop ; that 
the land, which is naturally rolling in character, and with 
the slipshod methods of farming in use, had been much 
depleted of its fertility, and was in a worn and washed 
condition ; that the principle work on the farm had been 

87 



to try and reclaim these soils, and that, everything con- 
sidered, vetch had been the most valuable crop that they 
had used for the building up and reclaiming of these 
soils ; that the fact that it could be seeded after the corn 
crop had been taken off in the fall, and then turned under 
in time to plant the land back to cotton the following 
spring, made it the most economical of all the leguminous 
crops, and so they have used it freely ; that on some 
of the better lands they had gotten as much as three 
thousand pounds of hay from an acre after having gotten 
considerable grazing off of it early in the season ; that 
they grazed it with both beef and dairy cattle, as well as 
colts and hogs ; t' t the combination for seeding whicli 
they preferred for thin land was one bushel of rye and 
fifteen pounds of hairy vetch seed and ten pounds of 
crimson clover seed to the acre ; that they found that 
the English or spring vetch winter-killed quite often with 
them, though they had the hairy vetch to freeze out ; 
that they made a practice of mixing both the English or 
spring vetch with the hairy vetch in smaller lots to be 
used as calf pasture ; that the English or spring vetch 
comes on earlier and makes a more vigorous growth ; 
that they count on getting considerable grazing on it the 
latter part of November, December and part of January ; 
that it usually kills by this time, and the hairy vetch 
comes on in the same territory later in the season; that 
during the year 1911 they threshed hairy vetch for the 
first time. It was seeded with rye and left until the 
vetch was thoroughly ripe. The rye was a little too 
ripe and shattered quite a bit in harvesting; that they 
put it through an ordinary threshing machine and had 
no trouble in threshing the clean seed; that they then 

88 



run a disc harrow over the land where it was grown and 
believed that they would get a good stand of rye and 
vetch on this land. He also says that he is very enthus- 
iastic about the use of vetches in this territory. 

Jas. T. Gardiner, of Augusta, Georgia, manager of 
the Moore farm near Augusta, Georgia, says that this 
farm was the pioneer in introducing vetch in Georgia 
some twenty-five years or more ago ; that ever since then 
this farm has grown vetch, making a specialty of vetch 
hay ; that in and around Georgia are bought every year 
thousands of bales of this hay and several thousand acres 
are grown to vetch ; that the farmers recognize the great 
improvement in the soil after a few crops of vetch, to 
say nothing of the profit in growing of veach for hay; 
that it makes first-class hay and sells for two to four 
dollars a ton more than other native hays ; that there are 
three varieties of vetch grown, the native vetch (vicia 
augiisti folia), English or spring vetch, and hairy or sand 
vetch; that it is almost impossible, however, to obtain 
the seed of the first named, and so as a vetch it is losing 
out; that most of the seed of the other two varieties are 
obtained from Russia ; that they do not grow very much 
of the northwestern United States vetch on account of 
the high freight rates, but that the hay produced from 
these northwestern vetches ranks high as forage for 
stock; that the growing of vetches adds nitrogen to the 
soil and adds immensely to its permanent fertility; that 
the vetch crops can be harvested in the spring in time 
to follow with cowpeas, and so two legume crops can 
be grown on the same land within a year ; that they find 
the vetch and the peas give more benefit to the crop 
than the clover or any other legume crop grown; that 

89 



the feeding value of the hay crop is greater than that 
of clover; that the value of a vetch and pea crop grown 
on the land in the same year is greater by one-half or 
two-thirds than the value of two clover crops ; that it 
is a common saying with 'vetch growers near Augusta 
that if you make your land rich enough for the maximum 
crop of vetch, the vetch will keep it permanently rich 
enough for everything else ; that the soil best suited for 
the growth of vetch is one that is loamy and well drained; 
that a soil with some clay is preferred to an excess of 
sand ; that sandy soils have produced good crops of vetch ; 
and lands that v/ill make the best pea crops will also 
make the best vetch crops ; that on the Moore farm they 
plant forty-five pounds of spring vetch with two quarts 
of cleaned oats to the acre, the latter to help hold up the 
former; that both seeds are sown with a disc grain drill 
after first going over the land twice with a disc harrow, 
or, more if on hard sod fields. For the hairy vetch they 
use twenty-five pounds of seed to the acre to the two 
quarts of oats. After the seeding is all over, a careful 
man on horseback sows two quarts of late crimson clover, 
and if the season is favorable, this crop in early May 
will be the most beautiful one ever seen, with its wealth 
of purple, pink, and crimson blooms and its many shades 
of green. It is truly a delight to the eye, standing up from 
three to four feet high. Many of the stalks of the hairy 
vetch measure nine feet long. He says that vetch aver- 
ages one ton to the acre of dry hay ; though many fields 
will make twice that amount ; that the hay of the spring 
vetch as a rule is preferred to that of the hairy vetch for 
the reason that it does not grow in such a tangled mass 
and it is therefore easier to cure, and so a better grade 

90 



of hay is secured from the spring vetch. The seed of 
this variety is about one-half cheaper in price. Some 
growers plant as much as from seventy-five to a hundred 
bushels of spring vetch each season. He advises the 
planting of both varieties if grown for hay, as the hairy 
vetch ripens about two weeks later than the spring vetch, 
giving time to save one crop before the other is ripe; 
that both these varieties of vetch stool very freely, there 
being from five to twelve stalks of vetch to the seed of 
the hairy vetch and four to six of the spring vetch. Not 
all the vetch fields near Augusta are planted with the oats 
mixture, as many of them are planted with the pure 
vetch; that the hairy vetch is hardier than the spring 
vetch. He says that the time of planting is from Septem- 
ber to December for the spring vetch, and that the seed- 
ing of the hairy vetch may be continued two weeks long- 
er. However, they aim to get all planted by November 
1st. Mr. Gardiner says that he thinks the vetch plant is 
destined to become the saviour of the long mismanaged 
soils and will ultimately make the soils of the sunny 
Southland become as productive as any on earth; that 
vetch stores up more nitrogen in the soil than cowpeas. 

He says that a good series of crops is to plant early 
in September vetch and beardless barley together, graze 
or cut the barley in the winter, cut the vetch, say in April, 
and then plant to cowpeas for summer hay cutting. The 
added value to any soil of these two legumes with or 
without barley should be in one year six to eight dollars 
an acre; that vetch hay and pea-vine hay have three 
times the food protein value, pound for pound, than found 
in timothy hay. 

Mr. Gardiner also says that both varieties of vetch 

91 



cut green are used freely by the dairymen in and about 
Augusta, and that this feed changes both the quantity 
and quality of the milk, increasing the quantity and 
giving to the milk a rich yellow cream, and a good taste; 
that when this milk is fed to spring pigs you can actually 
see the little fellows grow ; that some dairymen plant one 
bushel of beardless barley and a half bushel of vetch 
and one bushel of rye to the acre, some in less amounts; 
that if this mixture is planted quite early in the fall the 
beardless barley can be cut within sixty or eighty days 
from planting. Then in early spring the rye and vetch 
are cut together, and this cutting can be followed by two 
or three similar cuttings later in the season. If this 
combination, however, is sown late in the winter, the 
three crops can all be cut at the same time ; that the 
vetches furnish a wealth of bloom in the spring which af- 
fords a great feeding ground for bees which, during the 
time of its bloom, deposit three times the amount of 
honey that they will in other seasons, and that the honey 
is white and of an especially good flavor ; that the feeding 
value of vetch hay is the same as the feeding value of 
bran ; that in all Augusta territory there is now growing 
wild and increasing in amount each year a half dozen or 
more varieties. 

Mr. Gardiner states that the greatest mistake that 
the Southern farmer makes in the management of his soil 
is when he allows it to remain bare of crops throughout 
the winter, thus letting the rain wash through the soil 
and rob it of its fertility, and that this custom of relying 
on commercial elements to restore his soil makes it a 
very bad and unprofitable business. The planter could, by 
using a winter crop of small grain mixed with vetch, save 

92 



the fertility already in the soil, as well as increase the 
fertility which vetch and these small grain crops will 
give. 

He states that experiments prove that the vetch 
plant stores more nitrogen in the soil than cowpeas or 
any other legume. Comparing the feeding value of the 
different kinds of hay with vetch, he finds the vetch hay 
to exceed in value the entire list. 

The best time for planting vetch in the South is 
from December 15th to January 15th. Some are planted 
as late as March 15th, but maximum crops resulted from 
plantings made from December 15th to January 15th. 
February planting was not nearly so good, and a March 
planting was almost a complete failure. 

In the cotton fields vetch should be sown at the 
last plowing and then the whole crop turned under at 
cotton planting time. The vetch planting could be done 
in early fall or Christmas time and turned under in the 
spring. When the vetch is planted and the vetch hay 
crop cut the latter part of May, a crop of Early King 
cotton, or corn, or cowpeas could be planted down. 

The N. L. Willet Seed Company of Augusta, Georgia, 
say that they will not any longer list the variety known 
as vicia gracca; that it is a perennial vetch which grows 
too small to be of use. They claim that their native vetch 
called augustifolia is the best vetch they have there, but 
that the seed is too hard to obtain. They say that Augusta 
is a great vetch growing center and that the villosa and the 
sativa are grown very heavily for hay purposes only. 



93 



Hawaii, 

The College of Hawaii reports that while they have 
experimented with various legumes for cover crops, yet 
they have never included vetch in their experiments. 

Indiana. 

The experiment station at Purdue has made some 
experiments with vetch, mostly in small plots. And in 
their report they say that they have sown it about the 
first of September at the rate of sixty pounds to the acre, 
and it was sown with about one and one-fourth bushels 
of rye to the acre ; that they had also sown it in corn at the 
last cultivation or later. They claim that the plant did 
not make a heavy growth in autumn and that the winter 
season seemed to be so hard on them that many were 
winter-killed, and that those which survived the winter be- 
gan growing very slowly in the spring, but that, however, 
when they did begin to grow, they grew rapidly, and by 
May 1st had made a growth of eighteen inches or more. 
They state that when vetch was sown with rye the mix- 
ture did not seem to grow well together, as the rye grew 
more rapidly than the vetch and rather over-topped it. 
They noticed in some spots of the rye the vetch would 
have a good growth, while in other parts it seemed to 
be on a standstill and did not do much good ; that the 
proportion of vetch to rye of green weight when cut 
about May 1st was about twenty-five to thirty per cent ; 
that the green weight of rye and vetch to the acre will run 
about six tons, equivalent in dry hay to two and a half 
tons; that they highly recommend this vetch and rye 
mixture for green feed for dairy cattle, but are of the 

94 



opinion that wheat and vetch would make a better com- 
bination as the wheat makes slower growth than the 
rye and the two plants would come along more nearly 
together. They recommend vetch for turning under as 
soil improvement, either sowed alone or with a rye mix- 
ture. They observed that the roots were well supplied 
with nodules. They were of the opinion that the seeding 
ought to be rather heavy so as to make allowance for 
plants that were winter-killed, in order to get a good stand 
from the plants that were left over, or which survived the 
winter. They, however, recommended the use of clover, 
cowpeas and soybeans as a soil improver rather than 
vetch, stating, however, that if vetch would succeed and 
would not kill out, and was sown in the autumn in time 
to make sufficient growth in the spring, that it would be 
of great value turned under as a fertilizing crop. It is 
their opinion also that there is danger of the plant escap- 
ing cultivation and becoming a weed; that the vetch 
would mix with wheat, and not being easily separated 
from the wheat, and so would cause a dock at the ele- 
vator. Ov/ing to the high price of seed they state that 
they did not like to highly recommend the use of vetch 
generally by farmers. 

T. M. K., of Indiana, who does not give his name in 
full, writing for an agricultural paper, states that he has 
always had success in raising vetch ; that it had many ad- 
vantages over crops of similar use; that it not only had 
some properties of clover, but that it could be made to 
grow where clover would not do well ; that it was valu- 
able as a winter cover crop ; that he sowed it from the last 
of September to the first of October, pasturing it in the 
spring, and turned it under at plowing time for corn. He 

95 



states that it was perfectly hardy and stays green 
throughout the entire winter season; that it did v/ell in 
any soil and made excellent growth on poor sandy soil, 
and also on clay or heavy loam ; that it could be sown in 
the spring and would furnish an early green crop for 
soiling purposes ; that when sown in mid-summer it made 
an abundance of fall pasture. He recommends sowing 
fifty pounds of seed to the acre. He says that when har- 
vested for seed it could be threshed with a threshing 
machine, and a good load of it would thresh six bushels of 
seed; that for hay it should be cut when in full bloom; 
that he recommends sowing thirty to fifty pounds of vetch 
with a bushel of rye to the acre ; that the hay was splendid 
feed for sheep, cattle and hogs ; that it produced three or 
more tons to the acre. 

Another Indiana farmer, writing under the initials 
D. W. B., for a farm paper, states that a trial of vetch in 
his locality gave splendid results when followed with a 
corn crop, as it increased the yield quite largely ; that he 
sowed a half bushel of vetch seed with three quarters of 
a bushel of wheat about September 10th and it was 
plowed under for corn the following season, and while 
this was not sandy soil, the corn crop following proved to 
be the best corn crop on the farm in a yield of sixty 
bushels to the acre. He claims that vetch will do well on 
any good corn ground. 

Another Indiana farmer, writing under the initials 
N. P. W., near Richmond, Indiana, states that he has 
had some experience with vetch and found it to be a 
very valuable forage plant ; that no farmer need have 
any fears of vetch ever becoming a troublesome weed 
as all kinds of stock are very fond of it and will eat it 

96 



down to the ground the first season if they are allowed 
to pasture it close. He sows twenty pounds of vetch 
seed to the acre, mixing the vetch seed with oats, at the 
same time sowing one bushel of some red clover seed to 
four or five acres of ground ; that the vetch will not show 
until after the oats are harvested, and after the clover 
has a good start the vetch will peep up here and there 
above the clover, and if the season is favorable you will 
have the finest fall pasture any one ever saw. He recom- 
mends to not pasture this too close, and that next spring 
you will be surprised what a rapid growth the vetch will 
make; that it will be far ahead of the clover, and when 
you cut the crop for hay you will have no trouble in 
getting a hay-fork to hold it, and in feeding the hay in 
winter, you will not have a manger full of hay for bed- 
ding as is often the case in feeding clover hay. He says 
try it and be convinced of these facts. 

An Indiana farmer, writing under the initials of G. 
B., says that when winter vetch is sown on well prepared 
soil from August 1st to September 15th, it will supply a 
heavy crop of foliage for early spring feeding, but claims 
that the soil should be inoculated and that sandy, gravelly 
and well drained soils are best adapted to it; that the 
winter or hairy vetch will reseed itself from year to year 
if given a chance ; that the growth of this variety on suit- 
able soil has been so immense in some patches that 
neither man or beast could have waded through it with- 
out great difficulty, and that the roots were a mass of 
nitrogen-bearing nodules capable of drawing frorn the 
air one hundred pounds of nitrogen to the acre, worth 
not less than seventeen or eighteen dollars, besides 
furnishing a large supply of organic matter, and that 

97 



when Prof. John Craig, Horticulturist at Cornell Uni- 
versity was asked what was the best orchard cover crop, 
he replied without hesitancy, "winter vetch." 

Another Indiana farmer, writing under "A Reader," 
states that vetch does the best on good soil, but has the 
rare property of making a good growth on poor soil, 
especially on poor sandy soils ; that the seed germinates 
slowly, but that when the plants begin to grow it extends 
its roots into the soil, bringing up the plant food from 
below and storing it in the foliage, which, when turned 
under for green fertilizer in the spring, leaves it in the 
surface soil, where it may be easily utilized by crops 
which follow; that it makes rich pasture and is liked by 
all kinds of live stock, but is more useful as fertilizer 
turned under in the spring; that it stands the coldest 
winter weather, comes out early in the spring and quick- 
ly covers the ground, making it moist and mellow for 
the corn crop ; that where it has been grown on land 
that formerly produced forty bushels of corn to the acre, 
the following year after it was turned under the same 
land produced double the number of bushels and a bet- 
ter quality, which shows it to be one of nature's greatest 
nitrogen-gathering and humus-producing plants ; that he 
had noticed an abundance of root tubercles upon its 
roots; that the seed should be planted early during Au- 
gust. 

J. W. Simon, of Indiana, writing for an agricultural 
paper, says of vetch that fifty pounds of seed is the right 
amount to plant in corn ; that the seeding should be in 
August or early September ; that he plows the same under 
in the spring and follows with corn again ; that following 
this practice for the past three years it has doubled the 

98 



yield of corn on his land ; that it is a wonderful plant to 
bring the nitrogen from the air to the soil and to produce 
humus which so much helps to hold moisture in the soil ; 
that it is the greatest crop, before the corn crop, he ever 
tried ; that for grazing purposes it furnishes splendid 
nitrogenous food when grazed in spring; that it matures 
about June when it may be cut for hay ; that if left on the 
ground uncut a small seed crop will mature in autumn; 
that some sow it late in spring, but he prefers August or 
early September sowing. 

I. M. Edgington, of De Long, Indiana, has been 
sowing vetch for four or five years on his bottom land 
with timothy and says that it makes a fine hay, and that 
his cattle will eat the vetch instead of the timothy. This 
gentleman has been making a living for a large family 
for the last fifteen years off of a forty-acre tract of land 
and has educated all his children and has been to very 
heavy expense at several times for doctor bills. 

Iowa. 

Vetch has not been extensively grown in Iowa. One 
writer states that it is an interesting plant which in the 
future will be grown more than it is now ; that at present 
the cost of seed and the liability of the plant becoming a 
weed, nas prevented the more extensive growing of vetch 
in corn-fields ; that his reasons for thinking that the plant 
will be grown more in the future are that it possesses more 
of the good qualities of clover, and alfalfa ; that like them 
it brings down large quantities of nitrogen from *he at- 
mosphere and fixes it in the soil ; that it has been found 
that vetch was superior to clover and alfalfa in this 

99 



respect ; that from the fact of its being an annual the roots 
do not go quite so deep as clover and alfalfa and conse- 
quently its roots did not have the beneficial eiifect which 
is received from those plants which go into the soil deep- 
ly and changes the physical condition of the subsoil, and 
in bringing up the mineral soils from below ; that for pas- 
ture purposes it was similar to clover, alfalfa and other 
legumes, except that the vetch is superior even to alfalfa 
in muscle-building material. Each hundred pounds oi 
the hay contains eleven and nine-tenths pounds while 
alfalfa contains eleven and one-tenth pounds and red 
clover about seven pounds, but that the fact that vetch 
is an annual means that it will never become a perfect 
substitute for either clover or alfalfa; that he had seen 
vetch plants which sent out vining stems in all directions 
from the central crown for a distance of six or eight 
feet ; that it had been found that winter vetch gave better 
satisfaction as a rule than spring vetch ; that at present 
the high price of seed was the chief obstacle in the way 
of growing vetch ; that one of the objections for growing 
a vetch crop for seed was that it has no definite period of 
ripening, but that it is continually growing and producing 
seed; that from the best investigations it was learned 
that from ten to twelve bushels of seed to the acre could 
be obtained, which, at two dollars a bushel, would be a 
paying crop. 

Another writer states that there is a wild vetch 
growing in some places in Iowa, and in abundance, at- 
taining a height of three feet, and that stock seem to be 
fond of it, it sometimes being used for hay. This Iowa 
wild vetch was found in great quantities upon prairies 
before they were brought into cultivation. 

100 




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w g 



f-i CD 



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O -a 

an 

< 

W 
K 
H 



Idaho. 

The Experiment Station at Moscow, Idaho, reports 
through Prof. W. H. Wicks, that when in charge of 
the Oregon station he had observed the growing of vetch 
to a large extent; that at one time they were testing 
some ninety-six different kinds for the government ; that 
as to Idaho very few orchardists were acquainted with it, 
but that he was talking it quite generally among them 
as a shade or green manure crop ; that alfalfa was not 
satisfactory to use in orchards for this purpose. 

L. F. Childers, Agronomist, Idaho Experiment 
Station at Moscow, says that he has had considerable 
experience with vetch in Idaho; that he has never seen 
a failure resulting from seeding this crop ; that it is grown 
both for cover crops and orchards and as a forage ; that 
in the first instance nothing is seeded with it and it makes 
a rank growth, completely covering the ground; in the 
second instance it is seeded with wheat or some other 
crop to hold it up. In this case it does not make as 
heavy a growth as when seeded alone ; that in Idaho 
vetches are something of a weed and when seeded on the 
ground persist for a long time afterwards, but that Idaho 
farmers do not consider this a bad habit and prefer it to 
ordinary weeds. 

Illinois. 

I. E. Ingram, of Marshall County, Illinois, says that 
some years ago he sowed one-half bushel of hairy or sand 
vetch in corn before the last cultivation. The next year 
the land was put in oats and the vetch grew around on 
top of the oats so that it was very difficult to handle the 

101 



binder. The land was fall plowed and sowed to millet 
The next year the crop of millet was a very heavy one 
and no signs of vetch were seen. The land was again 
fall-plowed and sowed to oats and Canada field-peas 
which were cut for hay. Some vetch grew in the oats 
and peas, and the land was again fall plowed and put to 
corn the next season. The vetch again came up volun- 
tarily, and last year this piece of land was put in oats 
again, and again the binder was bothered in cutting the 
oats, and lots of the vetch seed had ripened. Vetch seems 
to be a persistent grower as the seed seemed to grow 
a^ter laying over in the ground for several years. He says 
he found vetch very troublesome in oats. 

Albert N. Hume, University of Illinois, says there 
are two kinds of vetch which have been at different times 
experimented with in the middle western states. At 
any rate the writer has knowledge of experiments with 
both kinds in Illinois. 

One kind is known as summer vetch and the other 
variety is known as winter vetch. 

Summer vetch is not a plant of much utility in this 
part of the country. It is possible that further experi- 
ments might be tried with it to some advantage, but it is 
hardly worth while for practical farmers to undertake to 
grow it. 

Winter vetch does better, but even that is rather an 
uncertain crop. In several years' trial at the Illinois 
Experiment Station, winter vetch on well fertilized, well 
drained land only made one good crop of hay or seed. 
So much for the cropping value of vetch. As to its value 
as a green manure plant one may say that no doubt some 

102 



of the claims made for it are warranted, but it would seem 
that the claims are somewhat over-enthusiastic. 

Vetch is a leguminous plant and would, therefore, 
when properly grown, add nitrogen and organic matter 
to the soil. Unquestionably such additions would in- 
crease the following crops. It is hardly likely that the 
yield of corn would increase from an average of fifteen 
bushels to the acre to an average of eighty or one hundred 
bushels to the acre. Although it is possible that such a 
change would in some instances and in some years take 
place. 

The only thing which the use of vetch as a green 
manure would add to the soil 1- nitrogen and humus. 
Neither vetch nor any other green manure will add min- 
eral elements to any soil. Therefore it is not a very good 
comparison to say that the plowjng under of vetch is 
equal to the putting into the ground sixteen dollars to 
forty-five dollars worth of commercial fertilizer, for com- 
mercial fertilizers contain mineral elements, or at least 
should contain them. Green manure adds only nitrogen 
and humus to any soil. The amount of benefit which 
would accrue from turning under a crop of vetch as a 
green manure would probably be less than the minimum 
usually suggested. 

It hardly seems necessary to enter more fully into 
the methods of handling vetch as a crop, because it does 
not seem likely that it will be very generally adopted as 
a part of the rotation systems in the Middle West. Where 
clover is not generally grown soybeans are more likely to 
take its' place than vetch. 



103 



Kansas. 

C. W. Nash, of the Kansas State Agricultural Col- 
lege, says : "So far as I have been able to find, nothing 
has been published on vetch at this station, and but very 
iew trials have been made of it here. The work that has 
been done with it, in brief is as follows : In the fall of 1904 
a small plot of vetch was seeded with rye. The vetch 
was a poor stand but survived the winter and made a 
tall growth. No yields are reported. In the fall of 1910 
vetch was sown alone and also with rye at different rates. 
The vetch came up and lived through the winter, but 
was smothered out on all the plots where it was seeded 
with rye. On the plots where it was seeded alone, a fair 
growth was obtained, but the yield an acre was not de- 
termined. In the spring of 1905 two plots were seeded 
to winter and spring vetch. A good stand was re- 
ceived of each. But the spring vetch dried up when about 
a foot high. The winter vetch grew to two feet in height 
and made 290 pounds of nay. As the area of the plot was 
not recorded it is not possible to give the yield to the acre. 
Spring and winter vetch sown this spring gave some re- 
sults. The spring vetch died early in the season, and the 
winter vetch lived and matured some seed, but not mak- 
ing a very heavy growth the result obtained would indi- 
cate that vetch has only fair promise for this section. 

"It is planned, however, to continue the test so as to 
get accurate data as to its value as a crop for our condi- 
tions." 

Kentucky. 

H. Garman, of the Agricultural Experiment Station 
of the State University of Kentucky, says: "I have 

104 



grown both the winter and spring vetches on the experi- 
ment farm for a good many years and find no difficulty 
in growing either of them. The winter vetch does 
particularly well. It does not, however, seem to be 
suited for forage unless grown with some other crop, such 
as oats or rye in good soil. Our farmers are not making 
very much use of the vetches at present, but are becom- 
ing interested in them and will doubtless find a place for 
them in some rotations." 

In the Fifteenth Annual Report of the Kentucky 
Agricultural Experiment Station, on page 42, we find the 
following on Russian or hairy vetch: "This is a trailing 
plant with weak stems and soft gray-green foliage that 
has done remarkably well wherever planted on the farm. 
It is an annual, but when left to itself sends up a profu- 
sion of plants from seeds dropped the preceding summer. 
It produces large numbers of lobe tubercles on the roots 
and is thus an active nitrogen gatherer. From its trail- 
ing habit it is not an easy plant to cut, and it is probable 
it will be found better as a catch crop to turn under than 
for anything else. Its vigorous growth is a pleasure to 
see when other plants are suffering from unfavorable 
weather. To keep it from the ground it may be sown 
with some small grain, such as wheat, oats or rye. It 
may be planted either in the spring or fall, using about 
one bushel of seed to the acre." 

In Bulletin 98 of the Kentucky Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, published in 1902, speaking of tubercles, or 
root nodules, on vetch, they say: "On hairy vetch (vicia 
villosa) they are variously lobed, young galls frequently 
consisting of three or four rather slender processes loose- 
ly attached to a rootlet, and older galls having numerous 

105 



lobes, making the general surface very uneven. The 
diameter of some of those observed in our plots was 5-16 
inch." 

The analysis of the different plants as made by this 
station shows that the kidney vetch in comparison with 
the different clovers, rape, field peas, English blue-grass, 
Florida beggar weed, Johnson grass, dwarf rape, Essex, 
etc., is higher in nitrogen free extract than most of the 
other plants mentioned ; that the Russian or hairy vetch, 
as compared to red clover, was higher in water, ash, pro- 
tein, fiber and nitrogen free extract content ; that the 
Russian vetch was higher in water, ash, protein, fiber 
and nitrogen free extract content than the whole plant of 
the soybean, except the fiber and the nitrogen free ex- 
tract content, which was slightly higher in soybeans than 
it was in Russian vetch. 

And the analysis of the average digestion co-efficients 
of the vetch plant as compared to alfalfa hay, alsike clover 
hay, cowpea-vine hay, crimson clover hay, Hungarian 
hay, Johnson grass hay, orchard grass hay, red clover hay 
cut in bloom, red top hay, serradelia hay cut in bloom, 
soybean hay, soybean meal, timothy hay all trials, 
timothy hay cut in bloom, timothy hay cut soon after 
bloom, contained a higher per cent of dry matter than 
any of these plants except the soybean meal, and con- 
tained a higher per cent of protein than any of these 
plants except the soybean, and a higher per cent of fiber 
than any of the above mentioned plants except the Hun- 
garian grass hay, Johnson grass hay, orchard grass hay, 
red top hay, soybean hay and timothy hay cut in bloom. 

In nitrogen free extract the vetch plant was of the 
same per cent as alfalfa hay, and contained a higher per 

106 



cent than any of the above mentioned plants except 
alsike clover hay, cowpea-vine hay, Hungarian grass 
hay, red clover hay cut in bloom, soybean and soymeal. 

The fat parts of each one hundred parts of these 
feed stuffs as shown by analysis, developed the fact that 
the vetch plant contained sixty parts of fat, which was 
nearly double that of the alfalfa hay and more than any 
of the aforementioned plants except Hungarian grass, 
seradelia hay and the meal made from soybean hay. 
There were only two parts more of fat in red clover hay 
than there was in vetch. 

Louisiana. 

The Agricultural Experiment Station of the Louisi- 
ana State University reports as follows: "We have 
planted the hairy vetch and Oregon vetch here for a 
number of years. We find they do pretty well here but 
they are not entirely satisfactory as a pasture plant, and 
the seed has been so expensive that we have not found 
it an economical plant to grow, as we have other plants 
that are as valuable that can be cultivated at a less ex- 
pense." They also report that they discussed this vetch 
plant in their Bulletin No. 72, which bulletin is exhausted 
and cannot be obtained. 

Missouri. 

The Agricultural Experiment Station of the Univer- 
sity of Missouri reports on vetch as follows: "We re- 
gret to say that Missouri has printed no matter up to the 
present time on the production of vetch, and in fact the 
crop is but little beyond the experimental stage in this 

107 



state. We have found the chief objection to the crop 
to be the securing of pure, germinable seed and the high 
cost of securing a good stand. It usually costs from $2.50 
to $5 an acre to get a good stand. Where the crop was 
gotten in late the growth the plant made before winter was 
not sufficient to cover the ground to any extent, or make 
any great amount of winter pasture. Where vetch was 
seeded early enough in late summer, so that a good 
growth could be had before frost, it has been found to be 
a paying crop. But these cases are so few and far be- 
tween that we recommend the crop only in an experimen- 
tal way and then very cautiously." 

Massachusetts. 

The Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Ag- 
ricultural College reports on vetch as follows: "Wt 
are sending under separate cover a copy of our Bulletin 
No. 133 and also a copy of our Fifteenth Report. You 
will see that we have tried the winter wheat and sand, 
or hairy vetch, particularly for forage purposes and have 
succeeded very well with same. We have also grown 
the winter vetch by itself as a cover crop with excellent 
results. We have' not tried it for seed. In earlier years 
the spring vetch was also grown in connection with oats 
for forage purposes with very satisfactory results. If 
the vetch is grown by itself, and especially if it is seeded 
thickly, it lodges and decays before ripening its seed. 
We presume this could be avoided if the plant was sown 
not too thickly in drills. Our chief objection to the use 
of vetch has been the cost of the seed. Of late years we 

108 



have been obliged to pay as high as six or seven dollars 
a bushel for it." 

In Bulletin No. 133 of this station they state that the 
most desirable legumes for green forage are the field 
pea, soybean, clover and alfalfa; that the vetch closely 
resembles the pea in its habit of growth and general ap- 
pearance; it has, however, finer stems and leaves. There 
are two species used for fodder purposes— the spring 
vetch (vicia sativa) and the sand or winter vetch (vicia 
villosa). The vetches and peas are used chiefly for green 
forage, to be grown together with the cereal fodders, 
the latter plant furnishing a desirable support." 

And they recommend wheat as the most desirable 
non-leguminous forage plant to be sown with certain 
legumes for forage purposes, saying: "The land should 
be plowed and one and one-half bushels of wheat and 
one bushel of vetch to the acre sown broadcast about 
September 1st, and covered not too deeply with a wheel 
or other harrow. A good growth may be expected be- 
fore cold weather but should be left uncut as a mulch. 
Cutting should begin just as the wheat-heads show them- 
selves, which in our locality is the last of May. This 
green crop will remain in feeding condition for twelve to 
fourteen days. If more of the fodder mixture has been 
produced than can be fed green, the balance may be made 
into hay. The yield will vary from six to ten tons of 
green fodder to the acre, depending upon the fertility of 
the soil, rainfall, and spring temperature. Immediately 
after the removal of the crop the land may be planted to 
Hungarian, barnyard millet or corn. In one season, from 
the same piece of land, we have secured at the rate of ten 
tons of green wheat and vetch and 17.6 tons of fod- 

109 



<ler corn to the acre, containing nutrition equivalent to 
five tons of well cured hay. The wheat and vetch mix- 
ture is hardy, and will contain approximately 3.4 per 
cent of protein, equal to twelve to fifteen per cent in air- 
jdried material. Because of the cost of the vetch seed it 
is doubtful if the ordinary dairyman can aflFord to grow 
the mixture; but the milk producer in the vicinity of 
private markets may find it of value as an early green 
feed. 

"Vetch sown by itself is not satisfactory for forage 
as it is recumbent in its habit of growth and rots badly, 
especially if the weather is moist. It has been highly 
recommended by Shamel as a cover crop to follow to- 
bacco. Sown broadcast about September 1st at the rate 
of one and one-half bushels of seed to the acre it grows 
rapidly and makes a good covering before winter. We 
have grown nine to ten tons of green material to the acre, 
cutting June 2d, equivalent to some one hundred and 
twenty pounds of nitrogen. This plant appears to be 
valuable as a forage crop grown together with a cereal, 
and likewise as a cover crop and producer of humus for 
sandy land and as a gatherer of nitrogen. The green crop 
that would naturally follow wheat and vetch is clover, or 
grass and clover," 

This station also states that the approximate time of 
seeding wheat and vetch is September 1st and the ap- 
proximate time of cutting is from May 25th to June 8th. 
And in their tables showing percentages of composition 
and digestibility of forage crops the vetch plant seems to 
make a better average than any of the other legumes. 

In Public Document No. 33 of the Fifteenth Annual 



110 



Report of the Hatch Experiment Station of the Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College, they give the following re- 
port of vetch and winter wheat: 

Summer Forage Crops. 

(a) Winter Wheat and Sand or Hairy Vetch. 

This mixture of a non-legume and legume has been 
tried for a number of years at the station, and has proved 
to be an early and desirable spring green fodder. The 
only objection to be found is the present cost of the vetch 
seed — $5 or more a bushel. This excessive cost is due 
to the fact that the vetch is a poor seeder, and frequently 
sheds its seeds before they can be harvested. 

History of the Several Trials. — The first planting of 
this mixture, Aug. 1, 1898, winter-killed, in all probabil- 
ity, owing to the iact that the seed was sown too ^.?rly. 

The second pljinting, made Aug. 25, 1899, in the 
proportion of rwo but^hels of wheat to one and one-half 
bushels of vetch, wintered well, and made a fine spring 
growth. Cutting began May 31, and the yield was at the 
rate of ten tons to the acre. 

The third planting was made Aug. 24, 1900, with 
equal quantities of wheat and vetch seed. The autumn 
of that year was extremely dry, and the wheat killed out 
to some extent, so that the vetch predominated. The fol- 
lowing spring was wet and cold — a condition which ap- 
peared to favor the growth of the vetch at the expense of 
the wheat. At the time of cutting, May 30, the vetch had 
completely covered the wheat in spots, and had lodged 
badly. The vetch roots were full of the characteristic 

HI 



nodules. The weight of the entire yield was not obtained, 
but a conservative estimate places it at six to seven tons 
to the acre. 

The fourth planting (1-3 acre), made Sept. 3, 1901, 
at the rate of one and one-half bushels of Rural New 
Yorker No. 6 wheat and one bushel of vetch to the acre, 
wintered well, and cutting began May 28th, at which 
time the mixture was from two and one-half to three feet 
high. At that lime the wheat was about ready to show 
the head, and scattered vetch blossoms were noticed. 
When in full bloom the mixture stood from three and one- 
half to four feet high. The total yield was 6,545 pounds, 
equivalent to 9.5 tons to the acre. 

Further Use of the Land. — Immediately after the re- 
moval of this crop the land was plowed, a light dressing 
of manure applied, and seeded with Longfellow corn. A 
yield (the past season) of 35,362 pounds (17.68 tons) of 
fairly well-eared green fodder to the acre was secured. 
The land was light and the rainfall excessive, which 
conditions were favorable, excepting the lack of heat, for 
fodder production. The total product of this piece of 
land for one year (first sown to wheat and vetch, and 
followed by corn) was at the rate of 8,622 pounds of dry 
matter to the acre, being equivalent to fully five tons of 
well-cured hay. It is not to be expected that such quanti- 
ties could be obtained yearly under average conditions, 
for the land could not be as fully utilized. It is interest- 
ing to note, however, the quantity of fodder that may be 
secured from an acre of land in an average state of fertil- 
ity, when climatic conditions are favorable and the land 
is occupied the entire season. 

Best Method of Growing Wheat and Vetch. — The 

112 



land should be plowed, harrowed if necessary, manure 
spread at the rate of four to six cords to the acre, har- 
rowed in ; a mixture of one and one-half bushels of wheat 
and one bushel of vetch sown broadcast about September 
1st, and covered, not deeply, with a wheel or other har- 
row. Cutting should begin just before the wheat heads 
appear, which in this locality is the last of May. The 
green crop will remain in feeding condition for twelve to 
fourteen days. If more of the fodder mixture has been 
produced than can be fed green, the balance may be made 
into hay. The vetch seed may be procured of New York 
seedsmen. 



Composition of Wheat and Vetch 





Green Fodder 


Dried Fodder 




No. 1 


No. 2 


No. 1 


No. 2 


Water 

Ash 

Protein 

Fibre 

Extract Matter 


Per Cent 

83.40 
1.50 
3.25 
5.13 
6.24 
.48 


Per Cent 

79.60 

1.76 

3.14 

5.98 

8.92 

.00 


Per Cent 
11.90 
7.97 
17.07 

28.38 

32.52 

2.16 


Per (^ent 
13.70 

.5.22 
10.93 
29.51 
38.70 

1.94 


Pat 




100.00 


100.00 


100.00 


100.00 



The percentage of protein in the mixture is depend- 
jnt to an extent upon the quantity of vetch present. In 
case of sample No. 1 of both the green and dry fodder, 

113 



the vetch predominated. In case of sample No. 2 of the 
dry fodder the wheat was probably in excess. In fodder 
combinations it is difficult to secure an even distribution 
of the several plants. The mixture of one and one-half 
bushels of wheat and one bushel of vetch to the acre is 
satisfactory, does not lodge, and will show from 12 to 
15 per cent protein in a thoroughly air-dry condition. 

Digestibility of Winter Vetch and Sand Vetch. — 
Five digestion trials have been made with two different 
samples of green fodder, and six trials with two samples 
of the dried material : 



m 



o 


u 




















*^ a 






■»3 




<A » 


fl 


^ (3 


a 


%■"• 


s^ 


O 




0) 


25 




<:9i 










(^ 



a 
o 



VI 

VII 

VII 
VII 



vv^heat and Vetch (green) . . 
Wheat and Vetch (green) . . 

Average 

Wheat and Vetch (dry) , . . 

same as Series VI (green) 

Wheat and Vetch (dry) 

Average 

Dent fodder corn (milk), 

for comparison 
Oats and peas (bloom), 

for comparison 



64.5442.4 
70_1343_5V) 

68.58J42.92 
68.33.59.41 



64. .5035.20 
66.4247.3173 8264.5. 



70.00 
70.0049.00 



76.27166.05 
70.9270 50 



74.1367.83 
76.8664.4769.71 

70.7764.5«166 75 



61.0064.00 
74.0064.00 



13155.65 
05 57 92 
70 i 



56.58 
63.46 

63.75 



;^68 



2.3 

76.00 
72.00 



63 61 
78.00 

64.00 



The several digestion trials make it clear that the 
wheat and vetch mixture is as digestible as either fodder 
corn or oat and pea fodder. They also show this fodder 
when dried under normal conditions to be as digestible 
as when fed green. 



114 



General Conclusions. 

1. Wheat and sand vetch is a hardy fodder mixture. 

2. When sown the previous autumn, it will be ready 
to cut the last of May, and is considered preferable to rye. 

3. It will yield about ten tons of green material to 
the acre under average conditions, and in composition, 
digestibility and feeding value it fully equals peas and 
oats, and similar crops. 

4. Because of the present cost of vetch seed, it is 
doubtful if the ordinary dairyman can afford to grow it; 
but the milk producer in the vicinity of profitable 
markets, who cultivates intensively, may find it a satisfac- 
tory source of early green feed. 

5. Wheat seeded by itself in early September makes 
a fairly satisfactory early soiling crop, and is to be pre- 
ferred to rye. 

6. The dried wheat and vetch fodder, if cut when in 
bloom, is preferable to ordinary hay for milk, but, on ac- 
count of the increased cost of production, it would hardly 
be considered profitable as a hay substitute. 

Minnesota. 

The Experiment Station of the University of Min- 
nesota reports as follows : "We may say that vetches 
are not grown extensively in this state. They are grown 
in small patches in some places for forage, and are occa- 
sionally used as green manure crops. We have tried 
them at the station for the above purposes, but have 
found the Canada field-pea a more satisfactory crop for 
either, but that seed is high in price and sometimes diffi- 
cult to get. We have no published information on the 

115 



subject, and all we can say is that vetches grow very well 
in most parts of the state, and have considerable value as 
forage and as a fertilizer, but that other crops are more 
popular and satisfactory." 

Michigan. 

In Bulletin 199 of the Michigan State Agricultural 
College Experiment Station, in a summary of legumes, 
it says that "Winter vetch, seeded in the spring, makes 
excellent fall pasture, but remains green through the 
winter. 

"Winter vetch as a substitute for clover has been 
grown best by seeding in the fall, using a half bushel of 
wheat and a half bushel of vetch, cutting the whole in the 
middle of June for hay." 

And in speaking of legumes it says : "The cowpea, 
soybean, and winter vetch have so many prominent 
characteristics as soil renovaters and stock feeds that 
they promise to be generally adopted as economical for- 
age and green manuring crops for the state of Michigan." 

A glance at the analysis of these legumes and a num- 
ber of our other common crops grown for the same pur- 
pose in the table given will at once give the reader an 
idea of their economic importance. They also say: "Ex- 
periments to determine the digestibility of cowpeas 
either as green feed, silage or cured hay, show it to rank 
higher than the average of forage crops. The winter 
vetch is slightly more digestible than cowpeas, and soy- 
beans more than vetch." 

In speaking of winter vetch the station says: 

(Vicia villosa). — This interesting legume has ap- 
peared under a great variety of names. It is often called 

116 



hairy vetch and sand vetch. Some have called it Russian 
vetch, probably because it originated in Russia. 

The seeds of this plant are small, black, hard spheres, 
resembling sweet-pea seeds. The growing plant also 
bears a close resemblance to sweet pea up to the time it 
blossoms, when a field of vetch appears as a sea of beau- 
tiful, bluish-purple clustered flowers. The plant is a 
branching, climbing vine, a great many of its branches 
attaining the length of seven to ten feet. 

A full-grown crop, even in three-foot rows, forms a 
dense mat, completely covering the ground to the depth 
of one to two feet. When grown with a crop of wheat, 
rye or other strong growing plant, it is kept entirely 
above ground. 

If the seeds be sown in early spring, when the 
ground is moist and the conditions generally favorable 
for growth, the plant will develop rapidly. By the mid- 
dle of August, it will be in full blossom, although it will 
continue to grow and remain green until the ground 
freezes in the winter. A few seeds will be formed in 
the late fall, but spring sowing is not advisable if one 
wishes to harvest a crop of seeds. 

If the seed is sown in the fall, that is, any time be- 
tween the first of August and the first of October, it 
will make some growth before winter sets in, but in the 
following spring will continue a marvelous growth, de- 
veloping blossoms by the first of June and ripen seeds 
by the middle of July. The fall sowing is the more de- 
sirable for producing seeds. One of the principal objec- 
tions urged against the growing of this crop is the great 
expense for seeds which are this year quoted at about 
$7.00 a bushel, while former advices have recom- 



117 



mended using as high as a bushel and a half to the acre. 
We find that the seed can be readily grown in this state 
by sowing in the fall, and harvesting about the time of 
winter wheat. 

It is found too that the quantity of seed necessary 
can DC economized by sowing with some other crop. A 
mixture of half oats and half vetch for spring seeding 
and a similar mixture of wheat or rye with the vetch for 
fall seeding have proved to be successful combinations 
for soiling and for hay. Our observation leads us to recom- 
mend the use of winter wheat instead of rye for fall seed- 
ing, because the latter will ripen too early and not give 
the vetch sufficient time for mature growth. When sown 
with winter wheat for hay, the crop makes an excellent 
substitute for red clover and is ready to harvest as hay 
by the middle of June. A piece of this on light, sandy, 
loam soil on the college farm the past year from a seed- 
ing of one-half bushel Dawson's Golden Chaff wheat and 
one-half bushel winter vetch gave, on June 19th, 4,300 
pounds of cured hay to the acre. The hay was greedily 
eaten by all kinds of farm stock, and its feeding value was 
especially high as will be seen by the following analysis: 

Moisture, 17.70; Crude Protein, 12.47; Ash, 5.72; 
Ether Extract, 2.20; Crude Fibre, 24.47; and Carbo- 
hydrates, 37.42. 

Circular No. 6, Division of Agrostology, recom- 
mends ensiling it in alternate layers with corn. Consid- 
ering its high protein content, this practice certainly 
ought to be desirable. A yield of nine tons of green 
feed to the acre is recorded in Circular No. 20, Division of 
Agrostology. 

118 



In Alabama Experiment Station Bulletin No. 105, 
hairy vetch is recommended as an especially valuable 
forage plant for the South. Analyses were made at 
various stages of growth, resulting as follows : 



Yield and Composition of Hairy Vetch Cut at Dif- 
ferent Dates. 

(Alabama College Station Bulletin No. 105.— J. F. Druggar) 





State of growth 


Hay 1 Composition 


Date 


2fe 


2 




J2 ei 


i ^ 

1 Xi 


J3 






eo c3 


CO 


? n 


u u 


o3 




« 








O 






fo 


1 


< 






Lbs. 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 








Cent 


Cent 


Cent 


Cent 


Cent 


Cent 


Apr. 19 


Just before bloom. . . 


3,117 


20.72 


23.45 


26.25 


2.22 


20.24 


7.12 


Apr. 26 


5% bloom showing. . 


3,705 


22.83 


18.97 


29.06 


2.112044 


6.59 


May 2 


[n full bloom 


5,789 


20.30 


17.15 


32.12 


2.1422.50 


5.79 


May 9 


Seed pods formed 
















but not tilled 


5,463 


22.48 


18.71 


29.50 


2 3519 92 


7.04 



The analysis of vines, roots and stubbles to de- 
termine the fertilizing value develops the fact that the 
nitrogen content increases with the stage of maturity, 
while the percentage of potash and phosphoric acid 
changes but little as the crop matures. These results, 
however, do suggest the advisability of postponing plow- 
ing under the crop for green manure until as late in the 
life of the plant as practicable. 

The winter vetch is rapidly gaining favor as a cover 



119 



crop for orchards. For this purpose it should be sown 
in July or August, and if the seeding is followed by favor- 
able growing weather, a very satisfactory crop will be 
present to mulch the soil when winter sets in. 

Mr. E. W. Hutchinson of Shelby, Mich., has for sev- 
eral years grown winter vetch for various purposes and 
writes as follows : 

"I would say that with us winter vetch can be grown 
successfully either for seed or as a feeding plant, or for 
plowing under as a fertilizer, and when hown on good 
corn or potato ground, it will grow a big crop. I have 
seen a space of six feet square covered with the vines 
from one root. 

"If sown in early fall, it will be ready to commence 
to cut in early summer for green feed ; and if cut when 
it begins to bloom, or is in full bloom, and is not cut too 
close, it can be cut as many as three times. 

"Should it be wanted as green feed for late fall or 
early spring, it should be sown in the spring, but should 
it be wanted for seed or dry feed, it should be sown in 
the fall. Should it be wanted to feed as hay, we find it 
is well to sow about twelve pounds of rye and fifteen 
pounds of vetch seed to the acre, but when the vetch is 
sown alone, we sow about twenty pounds to the acre. 
By sowing rye with the vetch, it holds it up the better, 
for cutting and curing. We find it one of the best plants 
for sowing on light land to plow under. 

"I do not just remember how much seed we got to 
the acre, but I do know that it was a good paying crop 
at the price we had to pay for seed, viz : $4.00 a bushel." 

Mr. C, H. Estes, Bates, Mich., in giving his experi- 
ence with winter vetch pronounces it one of the most 

120 



promising new legumes for northern Michigan. As a 
substitute for red clover he believes that it is a success. 
His most interesting experience with it was from some 
seedings made in the spring which he used for fall paatur- 
age. Some of the plants which were left through the 
winter were found in the spring showing above the snow 
and his cows when offered them, although having had 
roots once a day all winter, would eat this vetch in early 
March, seeming to like it. Even the fowls relished this 
green feed in the early spring. 

Mr. James Mills of Mancelona, Antrim county, 
sowed some winter vetch on sandy soil broadcast May 1, 
1901. He writes: "I tried it for green manure (top 
dressing) in orchard. It commenced to bloom in August 
and continued until frost in the fall, and there was a 
good covering on the land at the end of the season. It 
did not, however, seem strong enough to withstand the 
June grass." 

In Circular 13 issued July, 1911, by the Michigan 
Agricultural College Experiment Station, they say of 
winter vetch as a cover crop in Michigan orchards as fol- 
lows: 

"Most of the successful orchards in Michigan are 
plowed in the spring and cultivated until mid-summer. 
This season is the natural one for trees to make a growth 
of new wood and the plowing and cultivating make the 
plant food in the soil available and stimulate the growth. 
After the cultivation ceases, the new growth will ripen, 
become hard and in a condition to pass through the aver- 
age winter without injury, which it could not do if growth 
continued late in the fall. 

"At the last cultivation, it is desirable to sow some- 



121 



thing that will make a 'cover crop' on the land during 
the fall, winter and early part of the spring. If nothing 
is sown, weeds will make a 'cover,' but they will not 
make a uniform growth nor will they result in any bene- 
fit to the land and they may become a serious annoyance. 

"Many desirable features will result from having a 
cover crop in an orchard or vineyard, some of the more 
important ones are: 

"1. Their growth helps to check the tree growth 
and ripen the new wood. 

"2. A cover of vegetable growth over the soil, sup- 
plemented by the root system will prevent, to a very 
large extent, the washing of the valuable top soil by the 
heavy fall and spring rains. This feature is especially 
valuable on knolls and hillsides. 

"3. A cover crop will catch and hold the leaves as 
they fall from the trees. They contain some fertility 
and afford some protection. 

"4. The cover crop itself will make a blanket over 
the soil and by holding the snow from blowing away, 
this feature will be more efifective, as it will largely pre- 
vent deep and severe freezing of the roots and the altern- 
ate freezing and thawing, all of which causes serious 
losses in many Michigan orchards, especially those lo- 
cated upon the lighter and more porous soils. 

"5. One of the most valuable results from the use 
of cover crops is that they add humus and plant food to 
the soil. Certain plants commonly used for cover crops 
as clover, vetches, peas and beans, possess the power of 
gathering nitrogen from the air, storing it in the plants 
and later it becomes available in the soil. 

"Some of the advantages of the cover crop that might 

122 



be mentioned are : That they encourage the deep root- 
ing of trees ; they make the fall and spring operations in 
the orchard more comfortable and they improve the 
physical condition of the soil. 

"A plant suitable lor an orchard or vineyard 'cover 
crop' must meet some unusual demands. It must make 
at least a fair growth during late summer and fall; it 
must be able to stand the tramping necessary at picking 
time ; it must be able to withstand a possible drought ; in 
most' cases in Michigan, it must live over winter and 
grow vigorously in the spring; it must be hardy and it 
should have power to gather nitrogen from the air and 
hold it in the roots. 

"The experiment station has been carrying on tests 
in orchards and vineyards in different parts of the state 
to determine the best plant for a cover crop under Michi- 
gan conditions. At this time, winter vetch (vicia villosa) 
promises to be especially valuable for this purpose. The 
plant is sometimes called hairy or sand vetch. It was 
imported from Europe many years ago and has long 
been used, in the Southern states especially, as a forage 
crop. An appreciation of its value for orchard cover 
crop purposes is comparatively recent. 

"When sown as late as the middle of August, it 
makes a fair growth before winter ; it will stand tramp- 
ing well ; it is not difficult to get started ; it is hardy and 
will withstand the possible drought of fall and cold of 
winter; it grows vigorously in the early spring; it adds 
a large amount of nitrogen to the soil ; it will succeed on 
a variety of soils and especially well on sandy soil. 

"Michigan fruit growers who have not tried this 
plant for a cover crop are urged to do so. Seed should be 



123 



ordered at once as practically all that is used in this 
country is imported from Europe and the supply is lim- 
ited. 

"For cover crop purposes in Michigan, the seed 
should be sown during July or early August, usually at 
the time of the last harrowing. 

"If the seed is sown broadcast about 25 to 30 pounds 
to the acre is required and it should be harrowed in. 
Good results have been secured by drilling 18 pounds of 
seed to the acre. 

"A quick growth or 'catch crop' can be secured by 
sowing a bushel of oats or rye with the vetch. Since tlie 
vetch does not make a large growth in the fall, this com- 
bination is often desirable. 

"There will not be any difficulty in turning under 
the vetch if the orchards are plowed at the proper time 
in the spring. Where the growth is extra large, a chain 
or rolling coulter may have to be used on the plow." 

Chas. H. Hilton of Benton Harbor, Michigan, writes 
of vetch as follows : "We have grown vetches for cover 
crop purposes in orchards and vineyards for seven or 
eight years. We grow no seed. Do not believe it will 
be profitable here. Neither do I believe we can grow 
seed of as good quality or vitality as the foreign grown 
seed. I am much interested in the subject both as a 
farmer and a handler of the seed. This season we have 
handled 30,000 pounds of seed." 

Robert A. Smythe of Benton Harbor, Michigan, 
writes as follows: "I have never grown vetch for seed, 
but see no reason why we could not. My land is all in 
fruit and we use the vetch as a cover crop to plow under 
for the great benefit it does the land. I grow the winter 

124 



or hairy vetch. We sow the seed the last of July or 
early August. We broadcast it and disc it in thirty 
pounds to the acre. My vetch is looking fine now (Sept 
10, 1911). There are large quantities of the seed sold 
here and there would be a good deal more used if the 
seed waa not so expensive." 

C. H. Estes of Bates, Michigan, writes as follows: 
"Some six or seven years ago or more I bought some 
vetch seed and commenced to experiment with it. . My 
health failed me and I had to turn my farm over to my son 
and son-in-law. They said it was a nuisance and would not 
continue what I had begun. So my experiments are not 
large. I sowed two and a half acres and threshed 27 or 
29 bushels of seed. I did not sow anything with it to 
hold it up, and it only podded on top. Then I let it be 
until dead ripe and raked it with a horse rake and lost 
a lot of seed in so doing. I use it some for fertilizing. 
I never cut it for hay. I cut it and fed a lot of pigs on 
it one season, cutting the ground over twice, and used it 
as a cover crop in my peach orchard and was well pleased 
with it in every respect. The vetch has come up every 
year in my peach orchard and has been such a fine thing 
for it that my son and son-in-law have changed their 
minds about it and they are sowing it this fall, and so 
are eight of our neighbors. There has not been any 
raised in this neighborhood only what I sowed years ago, 
but I am sure that as soon as its value is learned, it will 
be raised largely. I think it is the cheapest, quickest and 
surest way to fertilize a poor piece of grounvl of any 
way, outside of barnyard manure. We are having a 
great deal of trouble to get clover on account of dry 
springs and grasshoppers, and the vetch will grow, wet 

125 



or cold, hot or dry, and the grasshoppers do not trouble 
it, and farmers have got to substitute something." 

W. H. Burke of Three Rivers, Michigan, writes of 
vetch as follows: "I have recently received from farm- 
ers in many states interesting suggestive reports con- 
cerning two great legumes — the hairy vetch and the soy- 
bean, and I know of no better way to encourage farmers 
to adopt new lines of work than to give the results se- 
cured by practical farmers. I present in summarized form 
the information thus furnished me : 

"The hairy vetch is said to be one of the best ferti- 
lizers for light soil. In my experience no inoculation 
was necessary, the proper bacteria being in the soil. I 
have examined the roots of many legumes, but have 
never seen the nodules in such abundance on any other, 
thus showing the value of the hairy vetch gathering 
nitrogen from the air. It is now conceded that those 
legumes which have the greatest number of nodules on 
their roots are the best fertilizers, and this should remind 
us carefully to examine the roots for these little nodules, 
and if they are not found, then to inoculate with the 
proper bacteria. 

"Hairy vetch is a winter annual and is sown with 
rye in the latter part of August, at the rate of one-half 
bushel each to the acre. This year I mowed and raked 
the vetch and rye and ran it through the threshing ma- 
chine, immediately after oat threshing was finished, and 
without any change in the machine. The vetch and rye 
were nicely threshed, and the rye and five bushels of 
marketable seed were thus secured from less than one 
acre. The seed can be harvested in this way so cheaply 
that every farmer can grow seed for his own market. 

126 



"October 3, I weighed seventy-seven shoats which 
averaged 103 pounds. November 3, they were again 
weighed and showed an average gain of forty-two pounds 
each. December 3, they averaged 188 pounds, making a 
gain of forty-three pounds each for that month. At this 
time they were turned into a two-acre lot of vetch and 
rye that had not been pastured, and given the usual 
amount of corn twice daily, with some clover and soy- 
bean hay. January 5 they were again weighed, averag- 
ing 241 pounds, a gain of fifty-three pounds from Decem- 
ber 3." 

An unknown Michigan writer writes of Michigan 
sand vetch as follows: 

"Michigan sand vetch is a very valuable forage plant 
and is rapidly becoming popular as year after year the 
farmers of this country are learning more of its true 
value. It is noted for its extreme hardiness, is highly 
valuable in the North as a winter cover crop to prevent 
leaching, is also valuable for forage and fertilizing pur- 
poses. It withstands hard winters, being hardier than 
wheat. It is an annual, but drops its seed freely and 
will come up year after year on the same ground. It 
does well on nearly all soils and is especially recom- 
mended for poor land, where it thrives and improves the 
soil wonderfully as it is very rich in nitrogen. It be- 
longs to the pea family but the vines are nearly twice 
as long and leafy as peas. It may be sown in the spring or 
fall with any crop of jrain. It remains green all winter 
and is valuable for early pasturing as well as for fertiliz- 
ing. It is extremely early and has enormous value for feed- 
ing purposes. Drought, heat, and cold do not affect it. 
It is eagerly eaten by all kinds of stock. The Washing- 

127 



ton Department of Agriculture estimates the value of an 
acre of this vetch plowed under as equivalent to putting 
into the ground twenty to forty dollars worth of com- 
mercial fertilizer. When sown in August or September 
it covers the ground before winter sets in and prevents 
washing of the soil during winter and early spring, which 
saves a great portion of mineral fertilizers contained in 
the soil which otherwise would wash out. When sown 
in April or early May it can be cut in July, the second 
growth affording excellent pasture during the summer. 
The yield of green forage runs from twelve to twenty 
tons to the acre. It is suited to any soil and is valuable 
in this respect, as it produces good crops on poor sandy 
soil, while on good land it grows to a height of four or 
five feet and produces enormous crops. Every farmer in 
the United States who raises any stock should have a 
field of it, as it is much more nutritious than clover and 
can be fed to any kind of stock with perfect safety. It 
is a rapid grower and thrives on little moisture. If raised 
'for hay it should be left standing until some seeds have 
become well formed. Sow thirty to forty pounds of seeds 
to the acre, either broadcast or in drills. To get the 
best results from it sow about one-half bushel of rye or 
oats to the acre with it, to furnish support for the vine." 

An unknown Michigan writer writes of vetch as fol- 
lows : 

"Crops for cut-over and stump lands. — Observa- 
tions of the sandy jack-pine cut-over lands in Michigan, 
Wisconsin, and Minnesota have been continued a id work 
has begun in the growing of hairy vetch as a seed and 
forage crop suitable for these lands. Large quantities of 
hairy vetch are now grown throughout the Atlantic Coast 

128 



and southern states as a soil-improving, forage, and win- 
ter cover crop, the seed for which is nearly all imported. 
The light, sandy soils of the North promise to be well 
adapted to this crop." 

Edwin Russel, President Manistee County Horticul- 
tural Society, of Manistee, Michigan, says : 

"At the time I decided to plant forty acres of light 
Michigan sand to fruit trees there was a very prevalent 
opinion that such soil was valueless for agricultural or 
horticultural purposes. The idea may have been local 
and was the result of frequent failures on the part of 
those who had neither capital nor brains to invest in the 
business. The old notion that any one can be a success- 
ful farmer has been cast into the scrap heap of discarded 
ideas. Farming is a business, often a serious one, and 
to succeed in it one must be alert, intelligent, progressive 
and ambitious. 

"The soil which I selected for my orchard was 
similar to thousands of acres along the east shore of 
Lake Michigan and about as light as nature makes it. 
The cut-off pine had been followed by a thick growth of 
oak which made clearing difficult and expensive. The 
first season I cleared and plowed twenty acres and sowed 
it to winter rye. Late that fall and in the spring follow- 
ing I cleared another ten acres which was plowed about 
the same time I turned under the rye on the twenty acres 
cleared the year previous. This gave the twenty-acre 
field the advantage of a crop of rye that the other ten 
acres did not have, and that lead has been maintained to 
the present time. Both pieces have had exactly the same 
treatment ever since, but the ten could never overtake 
the twenty and the difference has been very noticeable. 

129 



1 turned down the rye when it began to show the heads 
and at once sowed the thirty acres to mammoth clover, 
securing a good catch. Somewhat to my surprise, I 
found that the soil was inoculated with clover bacteria, 
the nodules came early and were thick all along the roots 
of the young plants. Subsequent observation and ex- 
periment show that nearly all our sand soils are similarly 
^inoculated. This is an important aid in building up the 
soil. There was a good growth of clover but it was much 
heavier on the twenty acres where the rye had been 
turned under. Early the following spring I set the 
thirty acres to fruit trees, mostly apples and peach, using 
peach as fillers. The trees were set in clover. This was 
unavoidable as setting could not be deferred till the 
clover had reached a suitable condition for plowing down. 
The best time to do this is just as the plants are ready 
to bloom. Growth will then be at its maximum and con- 
ditions right for supplying the greatest possible amount 
of humus. After turning under the clover there was a 
period of clean cultivation, then early in August I drilled 
the whole piece to winter vetch, about forty pounds to 
the acre. The stand was good, as is nearly always the 
case with vetch, and the growth rapid. But again, there 
was the same noticeable difference between the growths 
on the ten and twenty-acre tracts. This was still more 
marked when it was plowed down in May and June of 
the following year, which was in 1911. Another period 
of clean cultivation followed until August when a cover 
crop of rye was drilled in. The main reason why I seeded 
to rye instead of a legume was because the trees on the 
twenty acres were making such a heavy growth that it 
seemed advisable to add less nitrogen than would be sup- 

130 



plied by a leguminous crop. Many of the peach trees 
had sent out branches over a yard in length and the ap- 
ples were not much behind them. Yet I was told not to 
plant apples on this soil. Peaches might do fairly well if 
well cared for, but apples would be a complete failure. 
The results which I have secured show conclusively that 
this belief is unfounded and erroneous. There is no ques- 
tion but our light sand soils can be made immensely 
productive, far more so than the heavier clay lands which 
have heretofore been considered much superior. Sand 
is the best foundation in the world upon which to build. 
Always clean and always workable. No artificial fertiliz- 
ers need be applied, no expensive manures need be 
hauled. All that is necessary is to sow and plow under, 
sow and plow under. It is the key to the whole situation. 
One must not begin to take from the soil at once after it 
is cleared. Put under a crop or two. Lay by a little sur- 
plus. Build up to a point of high productiveness. When 
this has been reached it is easily maintained through 
subsequent years of cropping. Whatever crop is grown, 
one must not lose sight of the fact that the cost of pro- 
duction is regulated by the quantity produced. A hun- 
dred bushels to the acre every other year with a crop or 
two turned under in alternating years will return a larger 
annual profit than two successive yearly crops of fifty 
value of the land. Vetch is, undoubtedly, one of the most 
reliable and valuable fertilizing crops. It is a rank grow- 
ing legume and contributes a large amount of humus rich 
in nitrogen. It seems especially adapted to light soils 
where it is sometimes found groiving wild. It may do 
equally well on heavier lands, but my experience with it 
has been confined to the sand soils of Michigan. When 

131 



one can get a good stand of mammoth clover it is equally 
as good, but it is not as certain, being much more easily 
affected by weather conditions soon after sowing. On 
light soils I would always sow rye for a first crop after 
clearing. It never fails to grow and furnishes a liberal 
amount of humus which, in addition to its value as a 
fertilizer, fills the porous soil, conserves the moisture and 
makes an excellent, stimulating foundation for the clover 
or vetch which should follow. Every year's additional 
experience and observation strengthens my belief that 
the green crop, properly rotated and turned under, com- 
pletely answers the question of how to maintain soil 
fertility. Without exception, the most productive soils 
are those which contain the largest amount of humus. 
The most casual observer cannot fail to notice that, on 
hilly lands, the valleys are far more productive than the 
hills. The reason is because the rains and melting snows 
annually rob the hills of their humus and deposit it in 
the valleys. For centuries, Egypt was the 'granary of 
the world' because annually enriched by humus deposited 
by the overflow of the Nile. The prairie soils of the West 
contain little beside decomposed vegetation, and, while 
they may be and have been exhausted, yet they produce 
more successive good crops than any other soil. When 
depleted, they may again be made productive by the ad- 
dition of a fresh supply of humus. 

"One of my farms of forty acres was originally placed 
on the government map as 'swamp land.' That does not 
necessarily imply that it was all swamp, but that the low 
wet places were numerous and extensive. When tim- 
bered, these were cedar bogs or marshes, always filled 
with water. In order to fit them for cultivation I ran 



132 



tile underneath and dried them. The soil was a deep de- 
posit of humus that had been accumulating for ages. In 
these dried marshes I have never used any fertilizer but 
have applied it liberally on the higher lands adjoining. 
They are cropped annually with corn, potatoes, onions, 
cauliflower, cabbage, cucumbers and small fruits. It mat- 
ters not what the crop may be, the yield is double that of 
the higher lands adjoining, and the quality far superior. 
All of which is convincing proof that humus supplies the 
plant with all the food necessary for the perfect develop- 
ment of itself and fruit. 

"As a rule, we who till the soil, work our bodies too 
much and our brains too little. We do not observe, in- 
vestigate, reason and interpret as we ought. We use too 
little sense and too much theory and never discover how 
inconsistent theories often are. I had a rather amusing 
illustration of this at the time I sowed my first rye in the 
orchard. A neighbor, who had seen more years of farm- 
ing than I, happened along and the following conversa- 
tion ensued : 

" 'Good morning. What you sowin'?' 

" 'Rye.' 

" 'Rye, eh ; well, I don't expect you'll git much of a 
crop on that sand.' 

" *Oh, I don't intend to harvest the crop ; I'm sowing 
to plow under in the spring.' 

" 'Plow under, eh ; now there's where you make a 
mistake. You ought to sow peas or clover. Rye's no 
good.' 

" 'What makes you think rye is no good ?' 

" 'Why, it never puts back any more than it takes 
out. You don't gain anything, it just quits even.' 

133 



" 'See here neighbor, you are on the wrong track. 
I've got more sand in that twenty acres than I need and 
a lot less humus than I want, so I'm dropping a few mil- 
lion grains of rye into that twenty-acre laboratory to 
work out a little problem in chemistry, and when they 
have completed the work I'll have less sand and more 
humus, and if I could continue the chemical transforma- 
tion long enough, I'd bury that sand a foot deep with the 
richest plant food on earth. Those grains of rye are go- 
ing to do business. They are wonderful workers and 
they'll convert some of that unavailable quartz rock into 
nutritious food that trees and plants can use. Don't tell 
me rye is no good, its a magician that converts grains of 
sand into Elberta peaches.' 

" 'Wall,' said my neighbor, 'mebbe so. I hadn't 
thought of that.' And he drove away." 

Maine. 

The Experiment Station of the University of Maine 
reports that "The College of Agriculture at Orono has 
had no experience with the vetch plant. We regret ex- 
ceedingly that we are unable to give you any information 
on this subject." 

North Carolina. 

The Experiment Station of the College of Agricul- 
ture of North Carolina reports that they have done con- 
siderable work with vetch and bur clover. They write 
.concerning vetch as follows: "Vetch with us is chiefly 
grown with oats. Also frequently with rye or wheat. 
Usually two to three pecks of vetch are seeded with a 

134 



bushel and one-half to two bushels of oats, all being put 
in with a drill or broadcast. Usually the best time for 
seeding is during the latter part of August or early Sep- 
tember. Frequently, however, we can secure good re- 
sults if the seeding is delayed as late as the middle of 
October or later." 

In their bulletin on Co-operative Experiments they 
say: 

"Realizing the great value of the different legumes, 
the cowpea, the different varieties of clovers, soybeans, 
(also known as Japan peas, soja beans and in some of 
the eastern countries as stock peas), alfalfa, vetches, etc., 
on account of their ability to get nitrogen from the air 
through certain bacteria infesting the roots of these 
plants, and their importance to the farmers of North 
Carolina, the State Department of Agriculture desires to 
stimulate the growth and cultivation of these crops as 
much as possible, and to this end is co-operating with the 
National Department of Agriculture in planning co- 
operative experiments as rapidly as conditions will war- 
rant. 

"To grow any of these crops successfully there are 
certain soil requirements or conditions that must be met, 
otherwise the crop will be a failure. 

"One of the conditions required by every legume is 
bacteria, the kind peculiar to the particular crop to be 
planted. The department will be glad to give any definite 
information along this line at its command. 

"There are many varieties of vetch, but the ones 
used mostly for soil improvements are the hairy or sand 
vetch (vicia villosa), and the so-called spring vetch (vicia 

135 



sativa), which also needs to be sown in the fall months 
in North Carolina, to make a successful crop. 

"To succeed with vetch the soil needs to be inocu- 
lated the same as for crimson clover, except it must be 
inoculated with soil coming from a field that has grown 
vetch of some kind. Soil from a place that grows wild 
vetch or partridge pea is as good as that from a field 
where the cultivated vetch is grown. Also, soil taken 
from a place that grows English or garden peas will in- 
oculate vetch, as they belong to the same family. 

"Vetch makes a fine quality of hay, but when planted 
for that purpose it is well to sow it with wheat or oats, 
to hold the vetches up. Sow half a bushel of wheat, half 
a bushel of oats that will ripen at the same time the 
wheat will ripen, and half a bushel of vetch to the acre, 
in September or early October according to location. If 
vetch is sown alone, sow one bushel of seed to the acre, 
or when sown with wheat three pecks of wheat and half 
a bushel of vetch ; or one bushel of oats and half a bushel 
of vetch to the acre. If vetch is sown alone it can be put 
in at the last cultivation of the crops or at any time from 
then until October. If vetch and oats are sown together, 
sow in September. Vetch will reseed itself when the pods 
are allowed to ripen on the land. The seed should be 
covered from one to three inches deep, according to the 
nature and condition of the land." 

New Jersey. 

The Experiment Station of the Agricultural College 
of New Jersey reports as follows: 

"Would advise you that we have no special publica- 
tions on winter vetch. We have had, however, consider- 

136 



able experience with this crop as a green manure. It is 
the rule at the College Farm to seed in our corn, at the 
time of the last cultivation, a cover crop mixture consist- 
ing of forty to fifty pounds of winter wheat, eighteen to 
twenty pounds of winter vetch and five to six pounds of 
crimson clover. A similar mixture, consisting of one 
bushel of winter wheat or rye, and one-half bushel of 
winter vetch is used as a cover crop for seeding in the 
corn, or after early potatoes, in Middle and North Jersey. 
Occasionally the mixture consists of winter wheat, winter 
vetch and mammoth clover. Winter vetch is also used 
to a considerable extent by fruit growers in the state. It 
is then seeded either alone or together with barley or 
oats. The barley or oats die in the late fall, while the 
vetch continues its growth and the entire cover crop is 
plowed under the following spring." 

Nevada. 

The Experiment Station of the College of Agricul- 
ture of Nevada reports as follows : 

"We have experimented with the vetch plant very 
little at this station. We have grown it at times as a 
cover crop, but have not kept any data on the crop." 

North Dakota. 

The Experiment Station of the North Dakota Agri- 
cultural College reports on vetch as follows: 

"Our publications on vetch growing are scattered 
through a number of reports, all of which are now out of 
print. We have not attempted growing winter vetch 
and have had only fair success with the spring and sum- 

137 



mer vetch. From the struggle that all of the field grains 
have here to survive the winter, I have not expected that 
there was a chance of winter vetch surviving," 

New York. 

Prof. T. S. Hunt, of the Cornell Experiment Station, 
found that three months' growth of hairy vetch produced 
6,824 pounds of air dried forage to the acre, which con- 
tained 240 pounds of nitrogen, fifty-three pounds of phos- 
phoric acid and fifty-two pounds of potash. Calling the 
nitrogen fifteen cents a pound, it is plain that the vetch 
was a most efficient fertility gatherer. 

Nebraska. 

The Experiment Station of the University of Nebras- 
ka reports on vetch as follows: 

"We have no published results on this plant though a 
few plats have been sown from time to time. The variety 
used has been the ordinary hairy vetch (vicia villosa). I 
remember on one or two occasions it has cut about two 
tons of hay to the acre." 

Ohio. 

We have no official reports from the Experiment 
Station of the Agricultural College of Ohio. Joseph E. 
Wing, an authority on alfalfa, living in Ohio, writes of 
vetch as follows: 

"As to vetches, I have not seen them much used as 
far north as this, although I believe they have much merit 
and some day will be more employed than they are now. 
The winter vetches are assuredly hardy and make large 

138 



growth when well established, but without inoculation 
they amount to very little. For soil building I should 
sow them in the corn at the time of last cultivation or 
after oats or wheat, thoroughly disking or plowing the 
ground and mixing with them a light seeding of wheat 
or rye to help hold them up. A bushel of vetch seed is 
required for an acre. The seed must be inoculated, being 
.mixed with soil taken from a successful vetch field or 
else a larger quantity of the soil may be drilled in where 
the vetches are to be sown. As vetch seed is worth now 
about ten cents a pound it occurs to me that there might 
be good profit in growing it." 

The Livingston Seed Company of Columbus, Ohio, 
say: "We have been using this plant quite liberally on 
our grounds for several years with most satisfactory re- 
sults." And in a circular on sand or hairy vetch, which 
they are sending out to the trade, they say regarding this 
plant as follows : 

"As our country grows older our lands become more 
and more impoverished by constant cropping, the ac- 
cumulated humus of past ages is used up, the land be- 
comes hard and unfriable, will not hold moisture, and as 
a result we are reaping small crops, and occasionally a 
total failure. 

"Even when we reap moderate crops, it has been at a 
heavy cost of time and labor, and the result unprofitable 
as well as unsatisfactory, all because we have failed to 
note nature's methods. We think this condition can be 
improved upon if we would take advantage of some of 
the more modern methods, and use one or more of the 
lately introduced leguminous plants ; at present we have 
in mind sand or hairy vetch. 

139 



"This plant was introduced originally from Russia, 
where it seems to be a native, and has been used as a 
hay and fertilizer crop for a great many years. Since its 
introduction a few years ago it has steadily grown in 
favor wherever tried as a cover crop, especially for win- 
ter covering. 

"The plant belongs to the pea family, is very hardy 
and can be grown throughout the United States. Creep- 
ing in habit of growth, when young especially, the 
tendrils hug the ground very closely, and are tiny and 
spindling at first, but later grow very rapidly, and will 
throw up eight to a dozen or even more runners from 
each plant, that often reach a length of six to fifteen feet, 
where plants have been well grown. Each runner pro- 
duces numerous side shoots or tendrils that run from two 
to five feet in length, these being so twisted and entwined 
that it is next to impossible to take a single complete plant 
from the mass. 

"As its name implies, the sand vetch seems to be es- 
pecially adapted to light sandy soils too poor to pro- 
duce good crops of cow peas, soybeans or crimson clover, 
but of course will respond much more liberally on strong- 
er and better lands. 

"The vetch, like clover, alfalfa and other legumes, is 
a nitrogen gatherer and will respond much more liberally 
after the land has become inoculated with the bacteria 
peculiar to this plant. 

"The seed-bed for vetches should be made fine and 
then well firmed before sowing. This is not usually very 
difficult as they nearly always follow a hoed crop of some 
sort. As a cover crop, we have used them on our Kirk- 
ville farm after potatoes, corn, tomatoes, or any other 

140 



cultivated lands that we wished to cover for winter, to ba 
followed by a hoed crop the following year. 

"We sow any time from August 1st to October 15th 
(would, however, prefer not later than October 1st), and 
use from thirty to forty-five pounds to the acre. 

"The growth that it will show in the fall will depend 
very largely on the time of sowing, the nature of the 
land, and the amount of rainfall. We have had the seed 
lay in the ground all winter and then make a fair crop 
to turn under by May 10th, so rapid is its growth in the 
spring. 

"Where conditions of soil, time of sowing, and rain- 
fall have been favorable, it will make from ten to fifteen 
tons of green top to turn under by the first to the fifteenth 
of May, or in plenty of time for a crop of corn or other 
late planted crops. 

"The root system is quite heavy and like all legumi- 
nous plants, bears, to a greater or less extent, nitrogen 
galls or nodules according to the season, land and inocula- 
tion. Where the crops are heavy it will be found advan- 
tageous and often necessary to use a sharp rolling cutter 
on the plow in order that all the top be turned under. 

"If the crop is to be used for hay it will be well to 
sow forty-five to sixty pounds of vetch, and with it one- 
half bushel of rye to the acre, the nurse crop in this case 
helping to hold the vetch upright and off the ground, 
making it much less trouble to harvest. 

"We have faith in this plant and we believe those of 
our customers who have tried it have also, as our sales 
last season were more than three times that of the year 
before. We would suggest if you are located some dis- 
tance from a large city or where stable manure is hard 

141 



to secure, that you should by all means try vetch to re- 
plenish your failing supply of humus that is so essential 
to growing crops, and also save much valuable time and 
labor, that is now spent in hauling manure." 

Oklahoma. 

The Experiment Station of the Agricultural College 
of Oklahoma says of vetch as follows : 

"We can find no records of the experiments which 
have been conducted here with vetch. We can find fre- 
quent statements regarding this crop, but are unable to 
get any definite information regarding yields, hardiness, 
etc. Vetch does not offer any great possibilities in this 
state. Of the different varieties the hairy or winter vetch 
is the best. It is, however, so inferior to cowpeas and 
other leguminous crops which can be grown here that the 
subject is dismissed without much discussion." 

Oregon. 

The Oregon Agricultural College and Experiment 
Station reports on vetch as follows : 

"Publications on vetch are out of print at this time — 
will have a new bulletin out this winter. Vetch is the 
most commonly grown hay crop of the Willamette Val- 
ley.' The vicia sativa, smooth vetch, is the variety 
used altogether here, and since it endures our mild win- 
ters perfectly, it is seeded nearly altogether in the fall, as 
it gives a heavier yield. We drill the seed in any time 
from September 1st to December 1st at the rate of a 
bushel of vetch to the acre, mixed with a bushel of either 
oats, rye or wheat. It is mixed with rye where the earliest 

142 



possible crop of green feed is desired the next spring or 
where it is desired to have a cover crop to be plowed 
under as green manure in the spring. It is mixed with 
oats where it is to be used for cow hay and with wheat 
where it is to be used for horse hay. It yields from three 
to six tons of hay to the acre. Thousands of acres are 
devoted to this crop as it produces excellently on our 
heaviest and poorly drained land where the red clover 
will not prosper. We also produce thousands of bushels 
of the vetch seed, which is one of our most profitable 
crops, giving returns of $60 or $70 an acre. 

"The seed crop is generally handled and threshed 
much as any other crop, such as peas, for instance. It 
is mowed when the lower pods are ripe, cocked and al- 
lowed to cure, then hauled to the thresher and threshed 
by removing some of the concaves and substituting 
blanks and running the cylinder more slowly, much as is 
done for peas. 

"The great features of this crop here are, its value as 
a cover crop, a rich green manure, and early and exceed- 
ingly palatable and nutritious green feed, an excellent 
and very heavy yielding cow or horse hay, a very profit- 
able and easily handled seed crop, and last, a first-class 
legume in short rotations especially adapted to cur poor- 
est, heavy, wet land." 

They also report that the smooth vetch (vicia sativa) 
is very much superior in mild winters in western Oregon 
Oregon to the hairy vetch, outyielding it and being free of 
hairy covering, which makes it much more palatable. 
the hairy covering, which makes it much more palatable. 
This smooth vetch, however, will not stand the winters in 
eastern Oregon, where they must use the hairy vetch. 

Park B. Beatty writes of Oregon vetch as follows: 

143 



"I live in the heart of the Willamette Valley, the 
natural home of the vetch, and we are raising vetch and 
clover seed quite extensively. And the only thing that 
prevents us going into it more so, is the want of a market 
for the seed. Some years we have received as much as 
$3.50 for one hundred pounds of vetch. Last year (1910) 
it was slow sale at $2.00 to $2.50. At about $3.00 for one 
hundred pounds, F. O. B., there is very good money in 
raising the seed. If the seed could be laid down in the 
Mississippi Valley for around four cents a pound and we 
were assured of a steady market for the seed, we could 
supply any amount of seed. 

The kind of vetch principally grown here (Halsey, 
Oregon) is vicia sativa. It has been grown principally 
for hay and green forage. Has not been used extensively 
as a green manuring crop, but where it has been plowed 
under, the improvement of the soil is very marked in- 
deed. Our lands have not reached the point yet where 
such practices seem necessary, but are fast reaching that 
point. Our principal market for vetch seed has been for 
the cover crop in California orchards, and in the cotton 
states, where it is used somewhat as you are using it in 
restoring the impoverished cotton land. 

"The variety vicia zillosa is not grown extensive- 
ly here, but we could grow it quite as well as the other 
variety. All varieties of vetch grow to perfection here 
and are hardy on well drained land. Ten degrees above 
zero is about the minimum winter temperature here, but 
it has been as low as four degrees below without injury 
to vetch, except where the land was full of water, or win- 
ters are open — no snow to speak of. 

"The usual process of sowing for seed is to disc in 

144 



on ground where spring grain has been grown, about 
seventy-five pounds of seed to the acre. One hundred 
pounds is better. Pasture it off with sheep in the spring 
if growth seems too rank, cut with a mower early in the 
morning and rake and shock at once. Thresh in about 
ten days or more with usual grain thresher. This plan 
would not v/ork in a country liable to heavy rains, unless 
covers were provided, as it sheds rain very poorly in the 
shock. This is our dry season — July 15th to August 
1st — so it can be left out safely. If allowed to get wet 
after cutting, it will shatter very badly when drying". 

"Some sow with "half oats and can cut with a binder 
on light land. On very poor land a dressing of fifty 
pounds of land plaster to the acre, evenly distributed, will 
about double the yield of hay or give a considerable in- 
crease of the seed. 

"I believe there can be something done in arranging 
to have just the seed grown you need for your country if 
it could be thoroughly understood just what is wanted 
and the quantity that could be handled. Twelve hundred 
to fifteen hundred pounds is considered a good crop of 
seed here, but I am not posted on the yield of seed on 
hairy or sand vetch. Our seed is ready for market about 
August 1st." 

The Star Flouring Mills of McMinnville. Oregon, 
write of vetch as follows : 

"The vetch is a species of the field-pea. It has been 
crossed with a number of different varieties at different 
times, until it has become a splendid stock food. It makes 
splendid hay for all kinds of stock, and is cultivated to a 
great extent in the Willamette Valley. It is either sown 
in the fall or in the spring." 

145 



S. E. Hamilton of Newburg, Oregon, writes of vetch 

as follows : 

"The name of the vetch that is grown here is Oregon 
vetch and is the fall or winter variety. It is planted in 
the fall with wheat or oats, so therefore it is the cultivated 
vetch. We have a wild or sand variety which makes 
good pasture for stock." 

J. P. Logan of King's Valley, Oregon, writes of vetch 

as follows : , i • j 

"The vetch that we have here is the cultivated kmd, 
both spring and winter, being sown as a forage crop, it 
being considered the best hay for cows that this part of 
Oregon produces. 

"Oats are nearly always mixed with the vetch as 
otherwise the rank growth of the vetch would cause it to 
break down, and even with the support of the oats it often 
lodges badly, it being a very rank grower. Two tons ot 
cured hay to an acre are often cut here." 

Eugene Mills & Elevator Company, of Eugene, Ore- 
gon, say that the only vetch grown in their vicinity is 
the German winter vetch. 

D W Crites of Lynn county, Oregon, states that 
vetch seed is grown in the Willamette Valley very suc- 
cessfullv, the average crop of seed grown being one 
housand pounds or more; that the seed ripens from the 
15th to the 25th of July; that the spring vetch is grown 
exclusively and fifteen bushels of clean seed to the acre is 
considered a fair yield; that they can burnish vetch seed 
F. O. B., Des Moines, Iowa, in car lots for $2.50 a bushel. 

J M Stone, Lodi, California, inventor of the Globe 
Separator, for separating vetch seed from wheat, oats, 
etc , says that the large brown vetch imported from Scot- 



146 




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1 "5 c o 



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2 S.-S 
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-fflZ 

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land grows the largest plant and the best one for forage ; 
that there was a man in the Oregon Willamette Valley 
that paid for his farm in two crops of vetch. 

Prof. H. S. Jackson, of Oregon Agricultural College, 
says: "I would say that the vetch to which you refer 
in this state as causing trouble in wheat fields is the 
hairy vetch (vicia villosa) and is hence an escape from 
cultivation." 

Prof. G. R. Hyslop of the Oregon Experiment Sta- 
tion, Corvallis, Oregon, says : 

"We are very much interested in the various vetches 
in this section and there are quite a number of them 
which make a very good growth here. There are some 
wild vetches which make quite a vigorous growth in the 
hill and mountain land and also down in the section im- 
mediately adjacent to the coast. These wild plants that 
I have observed are frequently quite large and vigorous 
but thus far I have never identified them, but I think 
they are not vetches which have escaped from cultivation. 
The plant which you refer to as coming up in the wheat 
fields and mixing with the wheat is the common hairy 
vetch (vicia villosa). This vetch is troublesome in va- 
rious places since the seed has a diameter which is just 
about equal to the smallest diameter of the wheat grain, 
so that it is almost impossible to separate these vetches 
from the wheat; then, further than this, the hairy vetch 
disperses its seed before the grain is harvested and the 
seed may live in the soil for a number of years and then 
germinate at some subsequent time when conditions are 
favorable. So that these things make it rather difficult 
to eradicate in certain sections of our state where crop 
rotations are not used. 



147 



"Mr. Byron Hunter, of Walla Walla, Washington, 
told me of a spiral arrangement on which the vetch and 
wheat were poured and the wheat sliding down this 
spiral would not gain momentum enough to be thrown 
oft the sides, while the round seeds of the hairy vetch 
would acquire enough momentum that they would gradu- 
ally be thrown away from the center by centrifugal force 
to such an extent that they would be thrown ofif the spiral 
altogether and a fairly good separation of seed could be 
made in -this way. Personally, I have never seen this 
m.achine. 

"We have tried out quite a number of different 
varieties of vetch at the station, but thus far have not 
found any which is superior to the common vetch (vicia 
sativa). A few others have shown considerable promise 
but mainly from the standpoint of green manuring and 
cover cropping vetches." 

Rhode Island. 

The Experiment Station of the College of Agriculture 
of Rhode Island says: "While we have grown winter 
vetch as well as summer vetch here in the past we have 
not experimented with either to such an extent as to issue 
a bulletin on the subject. So far we have found they will 
thrive here and the hairy, or winter vetch, will endure 
our winters well." 

South Dakota. 

The Agricultural Experiment Station of the College 
of Agriculture of South Dakota reports as follows : "This 
college has raised some vetch, especially as a fertilizing 
crop, but not very much has been done with it and we 

148 



have no results as yet for publication. It is probable that 
we will have some sometime, but we must complete our 
experiments first." 

South Carolina. 

The Agricultural Experiment Station of the College 
of Agriculture of South Carolina reports : "Vetch has 
given excellent results in this state." 

Utah. 

The Experiment Station of the College of Agricul- 
ture of Utah reports as follows : 

"This station has had but very little experience in 
growing vetch and has no published data regarding the 
same. Our trials have been somewhat fragmentary and 
have been merely to see whether the plant would grow in 
this locality. The crop, so far as we know, is not grown 
to any extent commercially in the state, but our few ex- 
periments here show that it will grow fairly well under 
our conditions." 

Vermont. 

The Experiment Station of the College of Agriculture 
of Vermont reports as follows : 

"This station has made no investigations touching 
the growth of vetches that are of any importance. 
Twenty odd years ago we grew them in a small way as a 
cover crop in orchards. We studied the wild vetch, 
which is a semi-weed in this state, but further than this 
we have issued nothing which we think would have any 
bearing on your subject. We have never grown it for 

149 



seed. The wild vetch stands the winters very well in 
this locality. 1 have not enough data to enable me to say 
certain whether the tame vetches do or not." 

In the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Vermont 
Agricultural Experiment Station issued in 1900 and 1901 
they say of wild vetch the following : 

"The Bird Vetch or Wild Pea. 
(Vicia Cracca) 

"This plant occurs frequently in the meadows of 
Vermont, and in some places it is increasing so rapidly 
as to cause alarm. Frequent inquiries are made of the 
experiment station regarding its qualities. Farmers hold 
widely different opinions regarding it. The majority con- 
sider it to be a troublesome weed, but some regard it as 
a desirable forage plant. One man said he wished his 
entire meadow was covered with it, while another corres- 
pondent says that in his experience this vetch rivals 
witch-grass for the first place as a weed pest. 

"Description and occurrence. — It is a member of the 
pea and clover family, with clusters of numenms small 
blue blossoms, followed by small pea-like pods. It is a 
close relative of the cultivated vetch (mcia sativa). Like 
all the clovers and vetches it has root tubercles, which 
indicate its ability to utilize atmospheric nitrogen and so 
enrich, rather than exhaust, the soil on which it grows. 
It passes under a number of popular names — bird vetch, 
blue vetch, wild vetch, wild pea, French pea. It is a 
native of the woodlands of Eastern America, but as it 
now occurs in Vermont it is most common in the 
meadows and fence rows, and thus appears like an intro- 
duced plant. It likes best a strong heavy soil, such as 
favors timothy, and develops most luxuriantly in the 

150 



Champlain clays of Addison county. In such soils it 
establishes itself in meadows and forms tangled circular 
patches where it smothers out the clover and timothy and 
each year extends the area of its dominion. In such a 
patch the growth is most luxuriant at the margins. It 
spreads by means of creeping stems, and it is this habit 
which makes it difficult to eradicate. Since it is a mem- 
ber of the clover family it might naturally have qualities 
to commend it. The agrostologists of the Department of 
Agriculture state that this species is cultivated in Europe, 
both for soiling and for hay, and that it is prized in 
German sheep pastures. Evidently basing their opinion 
upon European practices, they recommend its cultiva- 
tion in low meadows, and especially in open wood- 
lands. 

"From our own observations and the opinions of 
farmers it has seemed worth while to learn more ac- 
curately its value as a forage plant under Vermont con- 
ditions, since it frequently happens that a plant economi- 
cally valuable in one country is not so in another. To 
do this it was necessary to determine its yield, composi- 
tion, palatability, relation to other foreign plants in 
mixture and ease of eradication. 

"There was quite a quantity of vetch growing with 
timothy in 1900 in a field adjacent to the experiment 
farm. By marking out plots in different parts of the 
f^eld there was opportunity to compare yields and 
shrinkage by drying, both of timothy and of vetch, un- 
der the same conditions of soil and weather. The plots 
selected appeared to be almost pure vetch, before cut- 
ting, but, as indicated in the table below, the plant is de- 
ceptive both in appearance and yield. Plot IV was pure 



151 



timothy, plot II before cutting appeared to be nearly 
pure vetch, but when cut was found to be fully one- 
half timothy, the vetch having so overrun the timothy 
as to hide it until cut. Plot I contained the most vetch, 
but as it was wet when cut the green weight is not 
strictly accurate. There was less vetch in plot III. All 
were cut on the morning of July 10. 

"The conditions found are represented below in 
tabular form : 



PLOTS 


I 


II 


III 


IV 


Actual area. 


13 sq. rods 


6 sq. rods 


14 sq. rods 


1 sq. rod 


Composition cf crop 


75%V.25f<.T 


50% V, 50% T 


30%V,70%T 


I00%T 


Yield persq. rod, green 


43 pounds 


60 pounds 


53H lbs. 


58 pounds 


Yield per sa. rod, dry (hay) 


12 pounds 


Z^H lbs. 


?A pounds 


3+H lbs. 


Per cent loss in drying 


72% 


61% 


36% 


40% 



"In the line stating composition. \" indicates vetch, 
and T indicates timothy. 

"Our observations coupled with the.-e results justify 
the following conclusions: 

"The vetch is a deceptive plant, the yield, green 
weight, is much less than the appearance of the growing 
plants would lead one to expect, and the shrinkage in 
drying is great. Where the vetch occurs in timothy 
fields it reduces the yield by a large amount, viz : 30 to 
60 per cent in our plots. Moreover, in the places where 
it occurs, it forms such a thick mat above that it smoth- 
ers the leaves below, and at the same time holds mois- 
ture. As a result, in a vetch-covered area the lower por- 



152 



tions of the plants, both of vetch and of clover that may 
be growing with it, are black and musty, and this in- 
jures both quality and appearance of the hay. Farmers 
who use the hay tedder complain that the tangled 
masses of vetch become a nuisance. 

"These objections would not hold against it as a 
pasture plant, but it rarely if ever occurs in Vermont 
hill pastures. The lower, heavier soils where it does 
occur in quantity are, of course, rarely pastured, so that 
we have no basis for opinion as to its value for pastur- 
age. 

"Composition and palatability. — The universal tes- 
timony of farmers having the vetch in their hay is that 
it is relished by stock and that it appears to be in no 
wise objectionable in the hay, except as noted in the last 
paragraph Some say that they consider it as good as 
clover for feeding. The hay made from the plots cut in 
1900 was fed to cows at the experiment farm in com- 
parison with mixed timothy hay. It was relished by the 
stock, did not appear to give any bitter taste to the milk, 
and was considered good hay by those in charge of the 
feeding. 

"A sample of the vetch hay which was taken from 
that cut on July 10, 1900, was given to the station chem- 
ist in February, 1901. The composition was found 
to be as follows: (For purposes of comparison the 
composition of an average quality of clover hay is given 
also.) 



153 





Original 








X 












substance 








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1 

* 

s 


1 

© 

3 


a 


1 

0) 


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St 

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X 
(E 

O 




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o 

o 






1 


a 


4^ 




^ 








t> 








J3 


o 




Q 


\J 


O 


o 


;5 


W 


S5 


P^ 


p< 




% 


% 


% 


% 


% 


% 


% 


% 


% 


% 


liird vetch hay ..._ 


7.30 


92.70 


0.33 


12.92 


29.83 


48.72 


2.20 


2.06 


0.42 


1.90 


Iced Clover hay ... 


15.30 


84.70 


7.3a 


14.52 


29.25 


44.98 


3.90 


2.33 


0.45 


2.60 



"Its weedy habits. — The thing that is most against 
the record of vetch is its weedy habits. It does not 
mingle peacefully with neighboring plants, but tends 
to overtop and smother them. This is decidedly to its 
discredit as compared for example with the related 
clovers and alfalfa. Moreover, it spreads by under- 
ground root-stocks and it has the reputation, especially 
in Addison county, of being difficult to eradicate. Prob- 
ably tliis depends somewhat on soil conditions, and still 
more upon the method of crop rotation. 

"There was considerable vetch in two fields of the 
experiment farm when the land was bought. This soil 
is a heavy clay loam, and it had lain in grass for a long 
time. These fields have since been brought under a sys- 
tem of short rotation of corn, oats and grass, and the 
vetch has been subdued without special effort, 

"Conclusions. — Our conclusions regarding this vetch 
as it occurs in Vermont may then be summarized as 
follows : It is of frequent occurrence in meadows, es- 
pecially in clay soils. It is a member of the clover fam- 
ily, has root tubercles, and therefore, tends to enrich the 
soil where it grows. It is a deceptive plant, since it ap- 



154 



pears to form a dense growth and to promise a heavy- 
yield of hay; whereas it actually gives a much smaller 
yield than pure timothy, and, of course, still less than 
the clovers. It tends to make the hay dark colored 
and musty, and because of the tangled masses bothers 
with the hay tedder. Where well cured it makes excel- 
lent hay, comparable to the clovers, both in palatability 
and composition. It spreads quite rapidly both by seed 
and creeping rootstalks, especially in clay soils, and 
smothers the timothy and clover. It is said to be diffi- 
cult to eradicate in some soils, although on the experi- 
ment farm it was promptly and easily killed where short 
rotation and clean cultivation were practiced. On the 
whole we rate it as a weed rather than as a useful plant, 
and recommend its eradication rather than its encour- 
agement." * 

Wyoming. 

The Experiment Station of the Agricultural College 
of Wyoming reports as follows : 

"There has been but little experimenting done at 
this station with the vetch plant, and there has been no 
literature published upon the same. The last two years 
vetch has been grown in sufficient quantities to show 
that both the winter and spring vetches are a success 
here. Our method of threshing is with the small separ- 
ator, threshing about the same as we would thresh 
peas. The winter vetch appears to stand the winter 
very well in this locality. We are intending to make use 
of both winter and spring vetches, growing with oats 
in our next year's crop for hay." 

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Wisconsin. 

The Experiment Station of the Agricultural Col- 
'ege of Wisconsin reports as follows: 

"We have not as yet issued any bulletins upon the 
growing of this crop, although we have carried on more 
or less experimental work during a series of years. We 
have found one of the best uses of vetch is to grow it 
with rye as a pasture crop. The vetches do well in 
Wisconsin even to the extreme northern part of the 
state. The sand or winter vetch grows luxuriantly. We 
are recommending several methods of handling vetches. 
One in particular is to sow the latter part of August as 
a nurse crop. We usually use one and one-half bushels 
of rye and thirty pounds of vetch to the acre. The rye 
and vetch come on nicely in the fall and afford a good 
late fall and winter pasture. They can also be pastured 
well down into the spring and then used for hay. The 
rye acts as a good support for the vetch, keeping the 
same from the ground. When the vetch is in full bloom 
the rye and vetch are cut and cured in the same manner 
as clover hay. We also proceed as above for sowing 
rye and vetch on sandy land. After pasturing in fall 
and winter it is left to grow in the spring until several 
inches high, then the rye and the vetch are both turned 
under and the ground used for corn or potatoes. Where 
we have grown the vetch for seed we do not get suffi- 
cient to warrant continuing the practice; also where we 
grew vetch for hay alone we found that the vetch would 
fall over on the ground and rot on the under side. 
This would give the hay an exceedingly bad smell and 
it was a hard task to cure it. Another detriment we 



156 



found and that was where we grew vetch the plants 
would continue for years to act as a weed. When wheat, 
barley or oats were grown on the land which had been 
seeded to vetch a goodly number of the vetch seeds 
would get mixed with the grains. The vetches are great 
nitrogen gatherers and enrich the soil in which they 
are grown. They appear to develop the nodules readily 
in Wisconsin." 

A party, under the initials of W. F. A., in Wiscon- 
sin, writes on vetch as follows : 

"Our First Acre of Vetch. 

"Having experienced a little difficulty in keeping a 
small tract of rather inaccessible land in the required 
state of fertility, we tried vetch, both spring and winter 
varieties. The seedsman instructed us to grow it with 
a nurse crop of oats. 

"We were told that vetch would not thrive in our 
Wisconsin latitudes, and for a time we were willing to 
believe it. The vetch we started with oats did not get 
a start at all, although the season was comparatively 
moist. 

"However, one despised acre, an experiment on our 
own part, which w^e had planted to a mixture of clover 
and winter vetch, finally rounded in shape. It had 
lingered long, when suddenly both clover and vetch took 
a notion to grow. 

"In August there was a magnificent stand of forage, 
all of which was plowed under. Thus, although we lost 
a season's crop from that acre, the improvement of tilth 
and fertility resulting, amply repaid the loss. Next 
spring we will put in more vetch and clover." 



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